rnia 
1 


UBftMT 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
RIVERSIDE 


THE    PLATFORM 

ITS   RISE    AND    PROGRESS 


j~D  931P- 

THE  PLATFORM 


ITS    RISE    AND    PROGRESS 


HENRY' JEPHSON 
in 


IN    TWO    VOLUMES 
VOLUME    I 


FRANK   CASS   &   CO.    LTD. 

1968 


Published  by 

FRANK   CASS   AND  COMPANY   LIMITED 
67  Great  Russell  Street,  London  WC1 


First  edition  1892 

New  impression  1968 


SBN  7146  2264  8 


Printed  in  Great  Britain  by 
Thomas  Nelson  (Printers)  Ltd.,  London  and  Edinburgh 


PKEFACE 

IN  presenting  this  work  to  the  public,  there  is 
but  one  plea  which  I  would  urge  in  extenua- 
tion of  some  of  the  comments  which  may  be 
made  on  it — namely,  that  it  is  the  first  history 
of  the  Platform  which  has  ever  been  written  ; 
and  just  as  there  are  special  difficulties  to  be 
surmounted  in  constructing  a  new  road  in  an 
unexplored  country,  so  there  are  special  diffi- 
culties in  writing  a  history  of  a  subject  hitherto 
not  treated  historically. 

In  putting  forward  this  plea  I  do  not,  how- 
ever, in  any  way  wish  to  deprecate  criticism  or 
discussion  on  the  conclusions  set  forth.  Rather 
do  I  invite  them  ;  for,  even  limiting  the  matter 
to  our  own  country,  it  is  manifestly  desirable 
that  the  position  of  so  great  a  political  insti- 
tution as  the  Platform  should  be  thoroughly 
discussed  and  defined. 

But  the  subject  has  a  further  interest. 
"  The  Platform "  is  an  attempt  to  graft  a 
system  of  democratic  government  on  the 


vi  PREFACE 

ancient  constitution  of  this  kingdom — or,  in 
other  words,  is  an  attempt  at  a  solution  of  the 
great  problem  of  popular  government  which 
has  in  recent  times  come  into  such  commanding 
prominence. 

As  a  great  experiment  in  that  world-lasting 
problem,  the  system  which  the  British  people 
have  adopted,  and  are  attempting  to  work  out, 
must,  whether  it  fails  or  whether  it  succeeds, 
attract  the  closest  and  most  searching  attention 
of  rulers  and  peoples  in  other  countries,  and 
at  later  times  than  ours.  It  is,  therefore,  I 
venture  to  think,  the  more  essential  that  the 
position,  and  power,  and  functions  of  the  Plat- 
form, as  an  institution  of  government  in  this 
kingdom,  should  be  clearly  and  distinctly 
defined. 


CONTENTS 

VOLUME    I 

INTRODUCTION 

PAET  I 

CHAP. 

I.    THE  BIRTH  OF  THE  PLATFORM. 
II.    THE  FIRST  GREAT  PLATFORM  CAMPAIGN. 

III.  THE  ECONOMY  AGITATION. 

IV.  THE  ELECTION  PLATFORM. 

V.    THE  LEGAL  POSITION  OF  THE  PLATFORM. 
VI.    THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  AGITATION. 
VII.    THE  FIRST  SUPPRESSION  OF  THE  PLATFORM. 

PART  II 

VIII.    THE  REVIVAL  OF  THE  PLATFORM. 

IX.   THE  SECOND  SUPPRESSION  OF  THE  PLATFORM. 
X.    THE  PLATFORM  AT  THE  GENERAL  ELECTION  OF  1818. 

XI.    THE  THIRD  SUPPRESSION  OF  THE  PLATFORM. 
XII.   THE  PLATFORM'S  PROGRESS  UNDER  GEORGE  III. 

XIII.  THE  EMANCIPATION  OF  THE  PLATFORM. 

VOLUME  II 
PART  III 

XIV.  THE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  EMANCIPATION  AGITATION. 
XV.    THE  FIRST  REFORM  ACT  AGITATION. 

XVI.   THE  PLATFORM  AFTER  THE  REFORM  ACT. 


viii  CONTENTS 


PART  IV 

CHAP. 

XVII.   THE  FIRST  CRISIS  OF  CHARTISM. 
XVIII.   THE  ANTI-CORN-LAW  AGITATION. 
XIX.   THE  SECOND  CRISIS  OF  CHARTISM. 

PART  V 

XX.    THE  SECOND  REFORM  ACT  AGITATION. 
XXI.   THE  BULGARIAN  ATROCITY  AGITATION. 
XXII.    THE  PLATFORM  AT  THE  GENERAL  ELECTION  OF  1880. 

XXIII.  THE  THIRD  REFORM  ACT  AGITATION. 

PART  VI 

XXIV.  CONCLUDING  CONSIDERATIONS. 


PAET   I 

THE  PLATFORM— ITS  RISE  TO  ITS  FIRST  SUPPRESSION 
1760-1801 

CHAPTER    I 
THE  BIRTH  OF  THE  PLATFORM 

PAGE 

The  important  Position  now  occupied  by  the  Platform     ...  3 

The  Platform  non-existent  at  end  of  Seventeenth  Century  .  .  4 

The  Influence  of  the  Religious  Revival  in  the  direction  of  the  Platform  .  5 

Commencement  of  Political  Activity  in  middle  of  Eighteenth  Century     .  7 

The  Rise  of  the  Commonalty          ......  9 

Early  instances  of  Public  Meetings  .....  10 

The  Right  of  Petitioning   .  .  .  .  .  .  .12 

The  Practice  of  Addresses  .  .  .  .  .  .  .16 

The  Platform  at  Elections .  .  .  .  .  .  .18 

Alderman  Beckford's  Speech          ....  20 

The  General  Election  of  1761         ......  21 

Popular  tendencies  towards  Free  Speech  and  Public  Meetings      .  .          23 


CONTENTS  ix 

PAGE 

Accession  of  George  III.     .......  24 

Addresses  to  him    .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .24 

The  King's  ideas  of  Government    ......  25 

Dismissal  of  Pitt    ........  26 

The  House  of  Lords            .......  28 

The  House  of  Commons     .......  28 

The  Forces  against  the  Platform    ......  29 

The  need  for  the  Platform              ......  30 

The  First  Platform  Agitation— the  Cider  Tax       ....  32 

The  Sale  of  the  Representation  of  Oxford  .....  36 

The  Gentleman's  Magazine  on  the  House  of  Commons      ...  38 

The  General  Election  of  1768  39 


CHAPTER    II 

THE  FIRST  GREAT  PLATFORM  CAMPAIGN 

John  Wilkes           ........  43 

The  Middlesex  Elections  of  1768-69           .....  44 

Expulsion  of  Wilkes  by  the  House  of  Commons    ....  45 

The  Appeal  to  the  Platform           ......  47 

The  Petition  of  the  Middlesex  Freeholders            ....  50 

Meeting  at  the  Guildhall,  London              .....  52 

County  and  other  Meetings            ......  53 

Effect  of  the  Agitation        .......  58 

Debate  in  the  House  of  Lords  on  the  Dispute       .  .  .  .59 

Debate  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  Dispute             ...  61 

Tory  Views  on  Platform  Agitation             .....  61 

Causes  of  want  of  immediate  success  of  the  Platform         ...  69 

Its  ultimate  Triumph         .......  70 

Review  of  this  first  resort  to  the  Platform  .  .  .  .71 

The  Position  and  Power  of  the  Crown        .....  73 

The  Publication  of  Parliamentary  Debates            ...  76 

The  Government's  Views  on  Government  .....  79 

The  Tory  Theory  of  Representative  Government  ....  80 

The  Remedy  for  Misgovernment    .  .  .  -  •  .81 

Parliamentary  Reform       .                         ...  82 

Political  Associations          .....  84 

Parliamentary  Candidates               ...  86 

The  General  Election  of  1774         ....  87 

The  First  Great  Platform  Victory              .....  88 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  ECONOMY  AGITATION 

Two  Phases  of  the  Platform— (a)  Expressive,  (&)  Didactic  89 

The  Platform  at  Elections .......  90 


x  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Platform  Speeches  of  Edmund  Burke  at  Bristol  Election,  1774    .  .  91 

The  Relationship  of  Representatives  to  Constituents         ...          92 
Addresses  on  the  American  War    ......  95 

Popular  discontent  in  1779  ......  95 

Yorkshire  starts  the  Agitation  for  Economy          .  .  .96 

The  organisation  of  Agitation        ......         100 

County  Meetings    ......  .         101 

First  instance  of  a  Platform  Speech  by  an  ex-Minister      .  .         105 

An  early  Platform  Speech  by  Charles  James  Fox  .  .  .105 

The  character  of  the  Agitators       ......        107 

The  effect  on  Government  .  .  .  .  .  .108 

The  Presentation  of  the  Petitions  ....  .109 

Burke's  Economical  Reform  Bill    .  .  .  .112 

A  "National  Association "  .  .  .  .  .  .113 

Dunning's  Motion  on  the  influence  of  the  Crown  .  .  .  .115 

The  collapse  of  the  Agitation         .  .  .  .  .  .118 

Effects  of  the  Agitation      .....  .119 

The  Gordon  Riots  in  London          .  .  .  .  .120 

Their  effects  on  the  Platform  124 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  ELECTION  PLATFORM 

The  General  Election  of  1780         ....  .126 

Sir  George  Savile's  Address  to  his  Constituents     ....         128 

Election  Speeches  .            .            .             .             .             .  .             .129 

Burke's  Speech  at  Bristol  .             .             .             .             .  .             .131 

The  new  Parliament           .            .             .             .             .  .             .134 

The  Petition  from  the  Delegates  of  Counties          .  .134 

The  final  Triumph  of  the  Middlesex  Election  Agitation    .  .         138 

First-fruits  in  Legislation  of  Platform  Agitation    .             .  .             .138 

Parliamentary  Reform  and  the  Platform    .            .  .139 

The  influence  of  the  Crown             .             .             .             .  .            .143 

Pitt's  First  Motion  on  Parliamentary  Reform,  1782           .  .             .         144 

Meeting  at  the  Thatched  House  Tavern     ...  .145 

Pitt's  Second  Motion  on  Parliamentary  Reform,  1783       .  .         146 
The  Coalition  Ministry      .......         151 

A  Platform  Speech  by  Edmund  Burke       ...  .154 

The  Yorkshire  Meeting       .....  .157 

The  General  Election  of  1784         ...  .                    158 

The  Platform  at  the  Election         ....  .162 

Pitt's  Third  Motion  on  Parliamentary  Reform       .            .  .         165 
A  Political  Dinner.                        ......        166 


CONTENTS  xi 

CHAPTER  V 
THE  LEGAL  POSITION  OF  THE  PLATFORM 

PAGE 

Public  Meetings — how  convened    .  .  .  .  .  .167 

,,  Freeholders  only  convened         .  .  .  .170 

,,  when  Legal  and  Illegal  .....         171 

Election  Meetings  ........         172 

Meetings  to  Petition  .......         172 

The  Riot  Act          ........        173 

Platform  Language  at  Public  Meetings      .....         174 

Restrictions  on  Speech        .......         175 

The  Law  of  Seditious  Libel  ......         178 

The  Libel  Bill  of  1771 .182 

Ex  officio  Informations        .  .  .  .  .  ..  .183 

High  Treason          ........         184 

Fox's  Libel  Bill  of  1791      .  .  .  .  .  .  .184 

The  Libel  Act  of  1792         .  .  .  .  .  .  .185 

Erskine's  Claim  for  Liberty  of  the  Press    .....         186 

CHAPTER  VI 
THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  AGITATION 

Early  popularity  in  England  of  the  French  Revolution     .  .  .         187 

The  General  Election  of  1790  .  .  .  .  .188 

Growth  of  Political  Knowledge       .  .  .  .  .  .188 

Political  Associations          .......         189 

The  Civic  Industrial  Population     .  .  .  .  .  .192 

The  London  Corresponding  Society  .  .  .  .  .192 

The  Society  for  Constitutional  Information  ....         194 

The  Society  of  the  Friends  of  the  People    .....         194 

Proclamation  against  Seditious  Writings  .  .  .  .  .197 

State  Prosecutions  ........         199 

First  use  of  the  Platform  in  Scotland        .....         200 

Rupture  of  the  Whig  Party  ......         201 

The  Declaration  of  War  by  France  .....         202 

Grey's  Motion  for  Parliamentary  Reform  .....         203 

The  Petition  of  the  Society  of  Friends        .....         204 

Debate  in  Parliament — Jenkinson,  Pitt     .....         205 

State  Prosecutions ........         210 

The  First  State  Trial  for  a  Platform  Speech  .  .  .211 

First  Open-air  Meeting  of  the  Corresponding  Society        .  .  .         217 

Convention  at  Edinburgh  .......         218 

Trials  of  Skirving,  Margarot,  and  Gerrald  ....         219 

Meeting  at  Chalk  Farm      .......         223 


xii  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Platform  Speech  by  Henry  Yorke  at  Sheffield       .  .  .  .225 

Arrest  of  Members  of  the  two  principal  Societies  ....  227 

Secret  Committees  of  both  Houses  of  Parliament ....  228 

The  Suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  1794  ....  229 

Completion  of  the  Rupture  of  the  Whig  Party      ....  231 

The  Policy  of  the  Government       ......  232 

Trials  of  Hardy,  Horne-Tooke,  and  others  for  High  Treason        .            .  234 

Trial  of  Henry  Yorke  for  Sedition             .....  239 


CHAPTER    VII 
THE  FIRST  SUPPRESSION  OF  THE  PLATFORM 

The  Revival  of  Agitation   .......  241 

Meeting  at  St.  George's  Fields       ......  241 

Meeting  at  Copenhagen  Fields       ......  246 

Outrage  on  the  King          .......  249 

Proclamation  against  Seditious  Assemblies            ....  250 

Repressive  Legislation — "The  Two  Acts"             ....  251 

Bill  for  the  Safety  and  Preservation  of  his  Majesty's  person          .             .  251 

Bill  for  preventing  Seditious  Meetings  and  Assemblies      .             .             .  252 

Speech  by  Pitt        ........  252 

Debating  Societies  or  Clubs,  and  Lecture  Rooms  ....  254 

The  Seditious  Meetings  Act           ......  255 

Opposition  in  Parliament — Fox's  Speech   .....  259 

Censorship  of  the  Platform             ......  259 

"Liberty  of  Speech"          .......  262 

Further  Speech  by  Pitt      .......  264 

Criticism  on  the  Government  Policy          .....  265 

Platform  opposition  to  the  Bills     ......  267 

Copenhagen  Fields  Meeting            ......  269 

Westminster  Meeting         .  .  .  .  .  .  .271 

Platform  support  and  opposition  to  the  Bills          ....  272 

The  State  Church  and  the  Platform           .....  274 

Suppression  of  the  Platform  .  .  .  .  .  .277 

The  General  Election  of  1796          ...  278 

The  Corresponding  Societies  Act    ...                         .  281 

The  Platform  silenced        ......  .282 

Review  of  its  Progress        .......  283 

The  Platform — how  far  used  by  Ministers  or  ex-Ministers             .             .  288 

Burke's  Platform  Speeches             ....                         .  289 

Lord  Shelburne,  the  first  ex-Minister  who  used  it              .                         .  289 

Fox's  Platform  Speeches     .......  289 

Pitt's  Platform  Speeches    .......  292 


PART    II 

THE  PLATFORM— FROM  ITS  FIRST  SUPPRESSION  TO  ITS 
EMANCIPATION 

1801-1825 

CHAPTER   VIII 
THE  REVIVAL  OF  THE  PLATFORM 

PAGE 

The  Platform  silent             .......  297 

Political  condition  of  Scotland       ......  298 

The  General  Election  of  1802         .  .  .  .  .  .301 

Wilberforce's  Election  Speeches     ......  303 

A  Lady  Platformer              .......  305 

A  contested  Election  in  Middlesex,  1804                ....  306 

Lord  Melville's  misconduct             ......  309 

The  Platform  on  Lord  Melville      ......  311 

Death  of  Pitt          ........  315 

The  General  Election  of  1806         .  .  .  .  .315 

William  Cobbett  on  Advantages  of  Elections         ....  315 

Corruption  at  Honiton        .......  317 

The  Agitation  for  the  Abolition  of  the  Slave  Trade            .             .             .  319 

The  General  Election  of  1807         .            .                          ...  322 

Distress  in  1808      ........  325 

The  Duke  of  York  Scandal            ......  326 

The  Platform  on  the  Duke  of  York            .                          ...  327 

The  Sale  of  Seats  in  Parliament     ......  331 

The  Causes  of  the  Revival  of  the  Platform             .  332 
Mr.  Curweu's  Anti-Bribery  Bill      .            .             .             .             .             .334 

«'  The  British  Forum  "  Debating  Society    .  .  .  .  .336 

Lord  Grey  on  Outdoor  Agitation    ......  341 

Distress  and  Luddite  Disturbances  in  1811-12        ....  343 

The  General  Election  of  1812          .                                      ...  346 

The  Contest  at  Liverpool    .......  347 

Canning  as  a  Platform  Speaker      ......  348 


CHAPTER    IX 

THE  SECOND  SUPPRESSION  OF  THE  PLATFORM 

Peace,  1814  ........         350 

Popular  progress  during  the  War  ......         351 

The  Landlord  Interest  and  the  Corn  Law .  ...         352 


xiv  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The  Corn  Law  of  1815        .......         355 

The  Agitation  against  it  when  proposed     .....         355 

The  Platform  and  the  Property  Tax  .....         361 

War— The  Hundred  Days  .  .  .  .  .  .  .      .  363 

Peace,  1815  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .364 

Distress       .........         364 

Renewed  Agitation  against  the  P-roperty  Tax        ....         365 

Defeat  of  the  Government  ......         370 

The  Platform  and  Parliamentary  Reform  .  .  .  372 

Grants  to  Royalty  ........         373 

Deepening  distress  .......         374 

A  Meeting  at  Westminster .......         375 

The  Platform  at  Glasgow    .  .  .  .378 

The  Nottingham  Petition  .......         379 

The  People  leaderless  ......         380 

The  Platform  a  safeguard  against  disturbances      ....         381 

The  Spa  Fields  Meeting  of  15th  November  1816    .  .  .  .383 

The  attempted  Insurrection  in  London       .  .  .  .  .         387 

The  Second  Spa  Fields  Meeting      .  .  •   .  .  .388 

The  Agitation  for  Parliamentary  Reform — Summary  of  Petitions  .         389 

Convention  of  Delegates,  1817        ......         390 

History  repeats  itself          .......         391 

Outrage  on  the  Prince  Regent        ......         392 

Treatment  by  Parliament  of  the  Petitions  .  .  .  .         393 

The  Platform  at  Trade  Clubs          ......         397 

Report  of  Secret  Committee  of  the  House  of  Lords  .  .  .         399 

Report  of  the  Secret  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  .  .         400 

"  The  Four  Acts  "  ......  .403 

Suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act        .  .  .  .  .       .  404 

Seditious  Meetings  Act       .......         405 

Debates  in  Parliament  thereon       .  .  .  .  .  .410 

Bamford  on  Platform  Orators         ....  .         412 

The  Blanket  Meeting          .....  .414 

The  effect  of  the  Coercive  Legislation        ...  .         417 

Attempt  to  suppress  petitioning  by  prosecution  in  Law  Courts     .  .         419 

Parliamentary  Reform         .  .  .  .  .  .  .422 

Renewal  of  Suspension  of  Habeas  Corpus  Act        ....         424 

The  Nottingham  Rising     .......         425 

Arrests  under  the  Habeas  Corpus  Suspension  Act  .  .  .         427 

The  Platform  again  silenced  .  .  ...  .  .         428 

Contrast  between  circumstances  of  suppression  in  1795  and  1817  .         429 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER   X 

THE  PLATFORM  AT  THE  GENERAL  ELECTION  OF  1818 

PAGE 

The  Indemnity  Act,  1818  .....  .432 

Dissolution  of  Parliament  .....••         434 

No  Ministerial  Manifesto  made      ......         435 

Composition  of  Lord  Liverpool's  Cabinet  .....         436 

The  Platform— how  far  used  by  Cabinet  Ministers— Lord  Castlereagh's 

Speech — G.  Canning  .......         436 

The  Platform — how  far  used  by  non-Cabinet  Ministers     .  •         439 

Number  of  Contests  .....  .441 

Use  of  Platform  at  contested  Elections       .....         441 

County  contested  Elections  ......         447 

The  Platform  at  non-contested  Elections  .....         450 

The  Electoral  Platform  in  Scotland  .....         451 

Cobbett  and  Bamford  on  General  Elections  ....         452 

Real  effect  of  the  Platform  at  General  Elections    .  .  .  .453 

Canning  on  the  Dependence  of  Members  on  their  Constituents     .  .         455 

The  independence  of  Representatives         .  456 

Summary  of  Position  of  Platform  at  General  Elections      .  .  .         461 


CHAPTER    XI 
THE  THIRD  SUPPRESSION  OF  THE  PLATFORM 

The  New  Parliament,  1819            ......  463 

Expiration  of  the  Seditious  Meetings  Act .....  463 

"Orator "  Hunt  at  Manchester      ......  464 

Distress  in  the  Country      .......  465 

The  Platform  reviving        .......  466 

Increasing  agitation            .......  469 

The  Birmingham  Plan  for  securing  Representation            .             .             •  471 

Meeting  at  Smithfield  (London)     ......  474 

Use  of  the  word  "  Platform  "  in  modern  sense       ....  477 

Proclamation  against  Meetings       ......  477 

The  Manchester  Meeting  of  16th  August  1819  and  Massacre  of  Peterloo  .  479 

The  Platform  on  Peterloo  .......  485 

Hunt's  reception  in  London           ......  486 

Dismissal  of  Lord  Fitzwilliam,  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Yorkshire,  W.R.        .  494 

Canning  on  Peterloo            .......  499 

Government  Papers  on  the  state  of  the  Country    ....  501 

"The  Six  Acts"    ..;.....  508 

The  People's  Claims  to  Public  Meetings    .....  504 


xvi  CONTENTS 

PAOB 

Canning  on  Platform  Agitation      ......         508 

Mr.  Scarlett  on  Public  Assemblies .  .  .  .  .  .511 

The  Seditious  Meetings  Prevention  Act     .....         514 

The  Law  as  regarded  Public  Meetings        .  .  .  .  .517 

Permanent  restrictions  on  the  Platform  proposed  ....         520 

State  Prosecutions  —  Hunt,    Bamford,    Knight,   Sir  C.  Wolseley— The 

Birmingham  Election  Case      ......         523 

The  antipathy  of  the  Government  to  the  Platform  .  .  .         527 

The  Third  Suppression       .......        528 


CHAPTER   XII 
THE  PLATFORM'S  PROGRESS  UNDER  GEORGE  III. 

Death  of  George  III.           .......  529 

The  causes  of  the  power  of  the  Platform    .....  530 

The  progress  of  Knowledge  in  the  Country            ....  531 

The  growth  of  new  Classes             ......  535 

The  Middle  Classes             .......  535 

The  Civic  Industrial  Classes           .             .             .             .             .             .  536 

Their  strivings  towards  the  Platform          .....  538 

Canning  on  the  Functions  of  the  House  of  Commons        .             .             .  540 

The  insufficiency  of  Parliament      ......  542 

The  growing  need  for  the  Platform  .  .  .  .  .542 

The  action  of  the  Platform  more  pertinacious        ....  543 

Increasing    effect  of   the   power  of   public   opinion    on    Parliament — 

Testimony  of  Plunket,  Canning,  Lord  Castlereagh,  Peel        .            .  544 

Greater  publicity  of  proceedings  of  the  Platform  ....  546 

The  actual  position  of  the  Platform            .....  547 

Deficiencies  in  organisation            ......  548 

Not  supported  by  the  Upper  Middle  Class             ....  549 

The  forces  for  and  against  the  Platform     .  .  .  .  .551 


CHAPTER   XIII 
THE  EMANCIPATION  OF  THE  PLATFORM 

The  Platform  in  abeyance  .......  553 

The  Cato  Street  Conspiracy  ......  555 

The  General  Election  of  1820         ......  556 

Difference  between  the  results  of  Pitt's  and  Lord  Liverpool's  Suppression 

of  the  Platform  .......  558 

The  Royal  Divorce  Case     .......  558 

The  Platform  comes  to  life  again    ......  559 

Democratising  influence  of  the  Royal  conduct       ....  564 


CONTENTS  xvii 


Attempt  to  obtain  Repeal  of  the  Seditious  Meetings  Prevention  Act 


PAGE 

566 


Agricultural  distress  and  Parliamentary  Reform    . 

K7K 

The  Platform  in  1823 


0  e/»o 

Progress  of  the  cause  of  Reform      . 
Description  of  a  County  Meeting  in  1822  . 


A  Foreign  Secretary's  Platform  Speech      .  .5 

The  Platform  at  Political  Banquets 

The  expiration  of  the  Seditious  Meetings  Prevention  Act . 

The  Emancipation  of  the  Platform  . 


INTRODUCTION 

IT  is  difficult  to  give  a  completely  satisfactory  defini- 
tion of  "  the  Platform."  As  a  comprehensive  defini- 
tion, I  should  say,  that  every  political  speech  at  a  public 
meeting,  excluding  those  from  the  Pulpit  and  those  in 
Courts  of  Justice,  comes  within  the  meaning  of  "  the 
Platform." 

It  may  be  objected  that  this  definition  includes 
speeches  made  after  a  public  dinner  or  banquet,  but 
such  occasions  have  been  so  largely  used  for  great  political 
speeches  outside  Parliament,  that  to  exclude  them  from 
any  history  of  "  the  Platform  "  would  be  to  treat  this 
great  subject  most  imperfectly. 

It  may  also  be  said  that  this  definition  includes 
political  lectures — that  a  Platform  speech  and  a  political 
lecture  are  two  totally  different  things ;  but  the  differ- 
ence is  more  one  of  the  manner  and  circumstances  of 
delivery  than  of  matter ;  and  public  discussion  usually 
follows  a  lecture. 

I  think,  then,  that  this  is,  on  the  whole,  a  fair  and 
sufficiently  distinct  definition,  as  it  fills  the  space 
between  the  speeches  in  Parliament  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  written  opinions  and  arguments  of  the  Press  on 


xx  INTRODUCTION 

the  other  hand,  and  this  is  what  the  Platform  practi- 
cally does. 

I  must  also  make  an  explanation.  From  the  very 
commencement  of  this  work,  I  have  called  "the  Plat- 
form "  by  the  name  we  now  know  it  by,  though  the 
name  only  came  into  use  in  its  present  sense  long  after 
the  thing  itself  was  in  existence. 

What  technically  is  now  called  the  "  platform  "  was 
during  the  last  century,  and  in  the  early  part  of  this, 
known  by  the  name  of  the  "  Hustings,"  which  word 
survives  in  use  to  the  present  day.  Occasionally  it  was 
designated  by  the  terms  "  scaffold,"  as  at  a  meeting  of 
the  inhabitants  of  Westminister  in  1795,  or  by  the  word 
"  stage."  Later  on,  the  words  "  tribune  "  and  "  rostrum  " 
and  "forum"  were  sometimes  used.  In  1820  we  find 
the  word  "  platform  "  used  as  describing  the  place  from 
which  the  speakers  addressed  the  meeting,  and  gradu- 
ally, as  we  advanced  into  the  present  century,  the  word 
"  platform,"  by  a  perfectly  simple  and  natural  transi- 
tion, came  into  general  use  and  acceptation,  not  merely 
in  the  technical  sense,  as  the  place  from  which  the 
speech  was  made,  but  as  descriptive  of  the  spoken  ex- 
pression of  public  opinion  outside  Parliament. 

For  the  sake  of  clearness  therefore,  and  so  as  to 
present  the  history  of  this  great  institution  as  a  con- 
secutive whole,  unbroken  by  change  of  designation,  I 
have  adhered  to  the  word  "  Platform  "  throughout. 

One  other  remark  I  also  wish  to  make.  I  have  con- 
fined this  work  to  the  political  "  Platform,"  for  it  is  in 
its  political  aspect  that  the  real  power  of  the  Platform 
lies. 


PAET  I 

THE  EISE  OF  THE  PLATFORM 

TO 

ITS  FIRST  SUPPRESSION 
1760-1802 


CHAPTER  I 

THE    BIRTH    OF    THE    PLATFORM 

AMONG  the  political  institutions  of  this  kingdom,  there 
is  in  this,  the  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century,  none 
of  greater  importance  than  "  the  Platform." 

A  century  and  a  half  ago — and,  in  the  history  of  a 
nation,  that  is  not  a  very  long  period — three,  and  only 
three,  great  political  institutions  were  in  existence  in 
this  country,  dividing  between  them  the  government  of 
the  kingdom — Crown,  Lords,  and  Commons,  venerable 
from  their  antiquity,  their  birth  lost  almost  in  the 
uncertain  records  of  the  past. 

In  process  of  time  there  arose  a  fourth — the  Press — 
for  long  not  attaining  to  the  position  of  being  a  com- 
ponent part  of  the  constitution,  but  exercising,  as  time 
went  on,  ever-increasing  influence,  and,  indirectly,  ever- 
growing authority. 

And  still  later,  almost  in  fact  within  the  memory  of 
living  men,  there  has  arisen  one  more — the  Platform. 

Not  so  very  long  since,  the  word,  in  its  present 
sense,  was  unknown  ;  a  little  farther  back,  the  thing 
itself  did  not  exist.  Now,  the  Platform  is  the  feature 
of  our  political  constitution  which  distinguishes  us  alike 
from  all  the  forms  of  government  that  the  wit  of  man 


4  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

has  contrived  in  the  past,  or  that  the  civilised  states  of 
Europe  have  attained  to  in  the  present.  It  has  taken 
its  place  among  the  most  vital,  active,  and  powerful  of 
the  governing  forces  of  the  constitution.  Its  powers 
for  good  and  for  evil  are  portentous,  and  its  sway  over 
government  is  practically  unlimited.  An  investigation 
therefore  as  to  the  origin,  growth,  and  present  position 
of  so  great  a  force  in  the  State  presents  the  most 
enthralling  subject  for  the  consideration  not  alone  of 
all  persons  having  at  heart  the  welfare  of  this  great 
country,  but  also  of  those  who  take  an  interest  in  the 
wider  subject — the  science  of  government. 

No  exact  year  can  be  assigned  as  the  precise  date  of 
birth  of  the  Platform.  Like  the  seedling  of  a  mighty 
tree,  it  gradually  developed  into  life.  Instances  are  to 
be  found  here  and  there,  even  very  far  back  in  our 
history,  of  meetings  held  by  the  people,  and  of  speeches 
being  delivered ;  but  they  are  isolated  instances,  and 
their  repetition  was  sternly  discouraged  by  those  whose 
hands  wielded  the  sword  of  authority.  For  many  cen- 
turies, indeed,  circumstances  were  scarcely  favourable  to 
popular  interference  in  the  affairs  of  government,  or 
even  to  the  expression  of  such  popular  feeling  as 
existed ;  nor  were  the  authorities  of  the  State  tolerant 
of  anything  that  seemed  even  remotely  to  encroach  on 
their  prerogatives. 

Down  to  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  idea 
of  any  real  political  influence  being  obtained  or  exercised 
by  means  of  the  Platform,  does  not  appear  to  have 
been  thought  of  by  any  one.  The  Revolution  of  1688 
was  effected  without  its  instrumentality,  or  the  slightest 
recourse  to  its  aid,  and  during  the  reigns  of  William  and 
Mary,  and  of  Anne,  public  political  meetings,  or  public 
speeches,  were  practically  unheard  of. 


CHAP,  i  THE  RELIGIOUS  REVIVAL  5 

In  the  earlier  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  how- 
ever, an  event  occurred,  which,  though  not  actually 
originating  the  political  Platform,  had  a  most  powerful 
influence  in  its  direction.  This  was  the  great  religious 
revival  led  by  Wesley  and  Whitefield.  This  great 
movement,  with  its  impressive  meetings,  and  its  thrill- 
ing addresses,  awoke  in  the  people  what  can  only  be 
described  as  a  new  sense.  It  was  then,  for  the  first 
time  in  our  history,  that  great  orators  came  into  direct 
contact  with  large  masses  of  the  people,  and  stirred 
some  of  the  intensest  and  most  passionate  feelings  of 
human  nature  to  their  very  depths.  Then,  too,  for  the 
first  time,  that  the  people  felt  the  deep  charm,  the 
fascination  of  the  spoken  word,  and  learned  the  mighty 
power  of  earnest  speech.  Then,  too,  for  the  first  time, 
that  great  masses  came  together,  and,  in  coming  together, 
had  revealed  to  them  the  community  of  interest  which 
bound  them  to  their  fellow-countrymen.  Perhaps,  too, 
as  wave  after  wave  of  emotion  swept  over  the  assembled 
thousands,  some  may  have  discerned,  dimly  and  indis- 
tinctly, the  enormous  latent  power  of  the  people.  These 
were  experiences  never  to  be  forgotten — confined  then 
to  the  sphere  of  religious  teaching  and  enthusiasm,  but 
affording  a  suggestion  if  not  an  example,  and  a  precedent 
for  similar  action  in  the  sphere  of  politics.  The  close 
analogy  of  many  of  the  proceedings  in  this  great  move- 
ment to  those  which  have  since  been1  familiarised  to  us 
in  great  political  agitations,  proves,  very  conclusively, 
that  it  was  one  of  the  most  powerful  influences  towards 
the  creation  and  development  of  the  political  platform. 
We  have,  first  of  all,  examples  not  alone  of  the  people 
assembling  together,  but  of  huge  open-air  meetings. 
Whitefield  began  preaching  at  open-air  meetings  in 
1739.  One  afternoon  in  the  February  of  that  year 


6  THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

"  he  stood  upon  a  mount  in  a  place  called  Rose  Green," 
near  Bristol,  "  his  first  field  pulpit,  and  preached  to  as 
many  as  came  to  hear,  attracted  by  the  novelty  of  such 
an  address." l  His  second  audience,  at  Kingswood,  con- 
sisted of  some  2000  persons,  his  third  of  5000,  until, 
at  last,  as  many  as  20,000  persons,  it  was  said,  were 
gathered  together  to  hear  him.  After  preaching  for 
some  time  near  Bristol  he  proceeded  to  London,  and 
preached  at  Moorfields.  Persons  told  him  he  would 
never  come  away  from  the  place  alive,  but  "  they  knew 
not  the  power  of  impassioned  eloquence  upon  a  topic  in 
which  every  hearer  was  vitally  concerned."  Then  he 
preached  at  Kennington  Common  to  enormous  gather- 
ings of  some  30-40,000  persons.  Here,  indeed,  was 
a  new  and  most  startling  event  in  the  life  of  the  nation, 
the  masses  assembling  together,  in  a  way  utterly  incon- 
ceivable before,  and  portentous  now  in  this,  that  it 
taught  them  the  first  great  rudimentary  lesson  in 
popular  government — that  they  could  assemble.  Here, 
too,  was  a  totally  new  means  of  instructing,  and  enlight- 
ening, and  influencing  the  people — capable  of  extension 
in  many  directions,  and  disclosing  vast  possibilities. 
And  these  great  lessons  were  not  confined  to  Bristol 
and  London,  for  Whitefield  and  Wesley,  and  soon  after, 
their  disciples  and  followers,  preached  through  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  land  to  great  gatherings 
of  the  people.  Wesley  describes  how,  at  Gwenap,  he 
"  stood  on  a  wall  in  the  calm  still  evening,  with  the 
setting  sun  behind  him,  and  almost  an  innumerable 
multitude  before,  behind,  and  on  either  hand ; "  how,  at 
Exeter,  he  preached  in  the  moat  of  the  old  castle. 

"  It  was  an  awful  sight !     So  vast  a  congregation  in 
that   solemn   amphitheatre,    and   all  silent   and   still." 

1  See  Life  of  Wesley,  by  Robert  Southey,  vol.  i.  p.  230. 


CHAP,  i  THE  RELIGIOUS  REVIVAL  7 

Whitefield  preached  on  one  occasion  from  a  stage 
which  had  been  erected  at  a  fair  for  some  wrestlers ; 
on  another,  he  attracted  round  his  pulpit  on  a  race- 
course thousands  of  spectators. 

Nor  was  the  example  afforded  by  this  great  move- 
ment of  religious  revivalism  limited  to  meetings  and 
speeches.  In  organisation  also  it  afforded  a  precedent, 
for  societies  or  associations  were  formed  by  the  disciples 
and  followers  of  Wesley  and  Whitefield  to  give  the 
movement  coherence  and  system. 

Southey,  in  his  Life  of  Wesley,  partly  recognised 
this  important  consequence  of  the  movement.  He  said, 
"  Perhaps  the  manner  in  which  Methodism  has  familiar- 
ised the  lower  classes  to  the  work  of  combining  in 
associations,  making  rules  for  their  own  governance, 
raising  funds  and  communicating  from  one  part  of  the 
kingdom  to  another,  may  be  reckoned  among  the  inci- 
dental evils  which  have  resulted  from  it ;  but  in  this 
respect  it  has  only  facilitated  a  process  to  which  other 
causes  had  given  birth." 1 

Thus,  when,  some  years  later,  the  great  political 
movement  embodied  in  the  Platform  began,  a  con- 
siderable portion  of  the  people  were  already  familiar- 
ised with  the  Platform  by  their  religious  experi- 
ences and  training,  and  were  ready  to  adopt  as  the 
organ  and  instrument  of  their  political  aspirations 
and  desires  the  agent  which  they  had  found  so  well 
adapted  to  the  needs  and  circumstances  of  their 
religious  life. 

Some  little  time,  however,  was  still  to  elapse  before 
the  political  awakening  took  place  which  was  to  call  the 
political  Platform  into  actual  life  ;  but  about  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century  certain  movements  can  be 

1  Life  of  Wesley,  by  Southey,  vol.  ii.  p.  533. 


8  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

discerned  among  the  people,  portending  future  political 
activity. 

The  political  temper  of  the  nation  was  gradually  and 
without  intermission  becoming  more  democratic,  and  the 
nation  more  capable,  as  well  as  more  accustomed,  to  judge 
of  its  general  interests,  and  those  to  whom  they  were 
entrusted.  Hallam,  referring  to  this  period,  says,1  "Upon 
the  whole  matter  it  must  be  evident  to  every  person  who 
is  at  all  conversant  with  the  publications  of  George  II.  's 
reign,  with  the  poems,  the  novels,  the  essays,  and  almost 
all  the  literature  of  the  time,  that  what  are  called 
the  popular  or  liberal  doctrines  of  government  were 
decidedly  prevalent.  The  supporters  themselves  of  the 
Walpole  and  Pelham  administrations,  though  professedly 
Whigs,  and  tenacious  of  Revolution  principles,  made 
complaints,  both  in  Parliament  and  in  pamphlets,  of 
the  democratical  spirit,  the  insubordination  to  authority, 
the  tendency  to  republican  sentiments,  which  they 
alleged  to  have  gained  ground  among  the  people." 

"It  is  certain  that  the  tone  of  popular  opinion  gave 
some  countenance  to  these  assertions,  though  much 
exaggerated  to  create  alarm  in  the  aristocratical  classes, 
and  furnish  arguments  against  redress  of  abuses." 

Hallam  is  not  alone  in  these  opinions.  A  con- 
temporary and  most  interesting  description  of  the 
country,  and  of  some  of  the  silent  changes  which  were 
going  on  in  it,  was  given  in  a  letter  in  TJie  Public 
Advertiser  of  1760,2  signed  "Henry  Fielding,"  which 
completely  endorses  the  view  Hallam  has  expressed, 
and  throws  even  more  light  on  the  subject  than  Hallam 
did. 

"  One  known  division  of  the  people  in  this  nation," 

1  The  Constitutional  History  of  Eng-          2  See    The  Public  Advertiser,   llth 
land,  vol.  iii.  p.  398.  September  1760. 


CHAP,  i  THE  COMMONALTY  9 

wrote  Fielding,  "  is  into  the  nobility,  the  gentry,  and  the 
commonalty.  What  alterations  have  happened  among 
the  two  former  of  these  I  shall  not  at  present  inquire ; 
but  that  the  last,  in  their  customs,  manners,  and 
habits  are  greatly  changed  from  what  they  were,  I  think 
to  make  appear. 

"If  we  look  into  the  earliest  ages,  we  shall  find  the 
condition  of  this  third  part  to  have  been  very  low  and 
mean.  .  .  .  The  commonalty,  by  degrees,  shook  ofi' 
their  vassalage,  and  became  more  and  more  inde- 
pendent of  their  superiors.  .  .  .  Nothing  hath  wrought 
such  an  alteration  in  this  order  of  people  as  the  intro- 
duction of  trade.  This  hath,  indeed,  given  a  new  face 
to  the  whole  nation,  hath  in  a  great  measure  subverted 
the  former  state  of  affairs,  and  hath  almost  totally 
changed  the  manners,  customs,  and  habits  of  the 
people,  more  especially  of  the  lower  sort.  The  narrow- 
ness of  their  fortune  is  changed  into  wealth ;  the 
simplicity  of  their  manners  into  craft ;  their  frugality 
into  luxury ;  their  humility  into  pride ;  and  their  sub- 
jection into  equality. 

"...  Now  to  conceive  that  so  great  a  change  as  this 
in  the  people  should  produce  no  change  in  the  constitu- 
tion is  to  discover,  I  think,  as  great  ignorance  as  would 
appear  in  the  physician  who  should  assert  that  the 
whole  state  of  the  blood  may  be  entirely  altered  from 
poor  to  rich,  from  cool  to  inflamed,  without  producing 
any  alteration  in  the  constitution  of  the  man." 

And  he  sums  up  by  concluding  "  that  the  constitu- 
tion of  this  country  is  altered  from  its  ancient  state,  and 
that  the  power  of  the  commonalty  has  received  an  im- 
mense addition,  and  that  the  civil  power,  having  not 
increased,  but  decreased,  in  the  same  proportion,  is  not 
able  to  govern  them." 


io  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

Alt  these  circumstances  then,  the  spirit  begotten  by 
the  religious  revival,  the  growing  tendency  towards 
popular  or  liberal  doctrines  of  government,  and  the  in- 
creasing power  of  the  commonalty,  were  combining,  in 
the  middle  of  the  last  century,  to  create  a  public 
opinion  which  hitherto  had  not  existed,  or,  at  any  rate, 
had  not  made  itself  felt  in  the  government  of  the 
country,  and  which  before  long  would  begin  to  give 
evidence  of  its  existence  by  and  through  the  Platform. 

And  here  may  be  stated  a  fact  which  elucidates  and 
explains  the  rapid  growth  of  the  Platform  once  it  came 
into  being,  namely,  that  the  Platform  is  not  an  ex- 
traneous growth  upon  the  constitution,  but  that  the 
seeds  or  germs  of  it  lay  in  the  constitution  itself. 

In  the  first  place,  the  system  of  county  government 
which  existed  in  the  middle  of  the  last  century  led  to 
meetings  of  the  principal  people  in  the  county  when- 
ever any  public  emergency  or  crisis  arose.  In  each 
county  there  was  a  Lord-Lieutenant,  who  was  the  prin- 
cipal representative  of  government  authority,  and  who 
was  charged  with  the  preservation  of  the  peace  of  the 
county.  Under  him  was  the  magistracy ;  and  then 
under  them  the  freeholders,  who,  as  electors  of  the 
members  of  the  House  of  Commons,  or  lower  House  of 
Parliament,  had  a  sort  of  recognised  position ;  and 
when  any  emergency  arose,  it  was  not  unusual  for  the 
Lord-Lieutenant  to  convene  the  magistrates,  and  some- 
times the  freeholders,  to  consider  the  necessary  measures 
to  be  taken. 

Thus,  in  1745,  a  meeting  of  the  nobility,  gentry,  and 
clergy  of  the  county  of  York  was  convened  by  the 
Archbishop  of  York  and  three  gentlemen,  "in  the 
absence  of  the  Lord-Lieutenant,"  "  to  consult  of  such 
measures  as  may  be  thought  necessary  for  the  support 


CHAP,  i  COUNTY  MEETINGS  11 

of  the  King  and  Government,  and  for  the  immediate 
defence  of  this  county  in  particular,  at  a  time  when  the 
very  being  of  our  constitution,  and  the  security  of  our 
liberty  and  property  and  religion,  is  in  the  most  apparent 
and  imminent  danger."1 

The  meeting  was  duly  held  on  the  24th  September, 
and  the  Archbishop  made  a  speech,  and  recommended 
the  formation  of  an  association. 

Again,  just  shortly  before  the  death  of  George  II., 
one  finds  in  the  newspapers  of  the  period 2  a  report  of 
a  public  meeting  having  been  held  at  the  Guildhall  in 
London,  and  another  of  the  nobility,  gentry,  clergy,  and 
freeholders  and  others  of  the  county  of  Middlesex  and 
city  of  Westminster  at  St.  Alban's  Tavern,  London,  to 
consider  of  the  most  effectual  methods  to  be  taken  for 
the  support  of  his  Majesty  and  his  Government  against 
the  invasion  now  threatened,  and  for  the  security  of  this 
county  and  city. 

This  latter  meeting  was  convened  by  the  Lord-Lieu- 
tenant of  the  county,  and  it  was  attended  by  the  Duke 
of  Newcastle,  Henry  Legge,  Charles  Townshend,  and 
"several  other  persons  of  distinction,"  who  passed  a 
resolution :  "  That  a  subscription  be  forthwith  opened 
for  an  immediate  voluntary  contribution,"  to  be  distri- 
buted in  bounties  or  rewards  among  men  who  would 
enlist  for  home  service.  Such  instances  at  this  period 
are  rare,  but  they  show  that  a  machinery  existed  even 
then,  and  was  sometimes  had  recourse  to,  for  the  collec- 
tion and  expression  of  the  public  opinion  of  a  county — 
a  machinery,  moreover,  which  was  capable  of  being 
freely  used  should  the  need  arise. 

That  the   people   were   prone,  even   without   such 

1  See  Wyvill's  Political  Papers,  vol.  2  See  The  Public  Advertiser  of  August 

i.  p.  i.  and  September  1759. 


12  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  I 

official  machinery,  or  on  so  large  a  scale,  to  have  re- 
course to  meetings,  and  discussions,  and  petitionings 
for  the  redress  of  grievances,  may  be  inferred  from  an 
advertisement  in  a  Birmingham  newspaper  of  1754:1 
"  The  inhabitants  of  Birmingham  are  desired  to  meet 
upon  Friday,  27th  December,  at  three  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon,  at  the  Widow  Packwood's,  in  the  Cherry 
Orchard,  to  consider  whether  it  may  not  be  proper  to 
apply  to  Parliament  for  a  redress  of  grievances  com- 
plained of  by  the  restraint  put  upon  the  wheel  carriages." 
History  does  not  report  whether  the  meeting  was  held 
or  not,  and  consequently  we  are  left  in  the  dark  as  to 
the  character  of  popular  oratory  on  such  an  occasion, 
but  the  advertisement  itself  throws  some  light  on  the 
tendencies  of  the  time. 

Independent  altogether  of  gatherings  of  county  per- 
sonages which  in  a  way  foreshadowed  the  Platform, 
there  were  certain  definite  "rights"  which  the  people 
possessed,  which  contained  in  a  clearer  and  more 
definite  manner  the  germs,  indeed,  almost  the  framework, 
of  the  Platform.  One  of  these  was  the  important 
fundamental  "right"  of  "petitioning"  the  King,  or 
either  House  of  Parliament,  for  a  redress  of  grievances, 
public  and  general,  or  even  private  and  individual. 
That  means  of  approaching  the  Crown  or  the  Legisla- 
ture for  the  redress  of  private  grievances  had  existed 
centuries  back — for  the  redress  of  public  grievances  it 
dates  back  at  any  rate  as  far  as  the  reign  of  Charles  L, 
if  not  farther.  Thus,  in  1642,  "The  humble  Petition 
of  the  Gentry,  Ministers,  and  Freeholders  of  the  County 
of  York,  assembled  at  the  Assizes  there  holden,"  was 
presented  to  his  Majesty  on  the  5th  of  April ; 2  and 

1  See  A  Century  of  Birmingham  Life,  2  A  copy  is  in  the  British  Museum, 

1741-1841,  by  J.  A.  Langford,  p.  72.          and  of  the  King's  reply. 


GHAP.  i  THE  RIGHT  OF  PETITION  13 

also  in  the  same  year  another  petition  was  presented 
from  "the  Knights,  Justices  of  the  Peace,  Gentlemen, 
Ministers,  Freeholders,  and  others  of  the  County  of 
Cornwall."  To  later  generations  this  important  right 
— after  the  flagrant  attempt  at  its  violation  by  the 
Sovereign  in  1688 — was  secured  by  the  Bill  of  Rights. 
This  Maorna  Charta  of  the  Revolution  declared  that  it 

o 

was  "  the  right "  of  the  subject  to  petition  the  King  or 
either  House  of  Parliament ;  and  in  order  to  secure  the 
full  freedom  of  complaint,  even  against  the  great 
authorities  of  the  State,  it  was  further  enacted  that  all 
commitments  to  prison,  or  even  prosecutions  for  such 
petitioning,  were  illegal. 

Petitions  in  the  earlier  times  were  usually  only  from 
an  individual,  or,  where  from  a  small  number  of  per- 
sons, they  were  got  up  by  two  or  three  individuals,  and 
carried  round  for  signature.  But  sometimes  they  were 
from  a  considerable  number  of  persons,  and  when  this 
was  the  case,  it  necessitated  the  people  coming  together 
in  a  meeting,  where  some  order  had  to  be  maintained, 
some  regular  form  of  procedure  to  be  followed,  and  some 
inter-communication  of  ideas  to  take  place.  Thus  the 
first  rude  outlines  of  the  Platform  were  actually  in 
existence  a  good  long  time  ago,  were  almost  coeval,  in 
fact,  with  the  origin  of  public  petitioning.  This  right 
was  undoubtedly  one  of  the  most  valuable  which  the 
people  possessed,  for  it  afforded  them  the  means  of 
giving  public  expression  to  their  wishes,  and  obtaining 
the  consideration  of  their  prayers  in  times  when  free- 
dom of  speech  was  watched  with  hostile  eyes.  More- 
over, it  brought  them  together  for  a  common  object, 
it  gave  them  the  opportunity  of  presenting  to  the 
governing  powers  of  King  and  Parliament  views  which 
otherwise  could  not  have  reached  those  great  authori- 


14  THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

ties,  and,  fenced  round  as  it  was  with  immunity  from 
punishment,  it  afforded  a  safe  and  almost  unassailable 
basis  of  action  in  the  long  struggle  for  the  goal  of 
popular  government. 

The  right,  however,  it  must  be  remarked,  was  in  one 
way  not  absolutely  unlimited,  for  it  was  subject  to 
legislative  restriction  by  an  Act  of  Parliament,  which 
had  been  passed  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II.,1  with  the 
object  of  preventing  tumults  or  disorders,  which  had 
become  common,  "  upon  pretence  of  preparing  or  pre- 
senting public  petitions  or  other  addresses  to  His  Majesty 
or  the  Parliament."  This  measure  enacted,  that  no 
person  or  persons  whatsoever  should  in  future  "  solicit, 
labour,  or  procure  the  getting  of  hands,  or  other  con- 
sent, of  any  persons  above  the  number  of  twenty  or 
more,  to  any  petition,  complaint,  remonstrance,  declara- 
tion, or  other  address  to  the  King,  or  both  or  either 
House  of  Parliament,  for  alteration  of  matters  estab- 
lished by  law  in  Church  or  State,  unless  the  matter 
thereof  have  been  first  consented  unto,  and  ordered  by 
three  or  more  Justices  of  that  County,  or  by  the  major 
part  of  the  Grand  Jury  of  the  County,  or,  if  arising  in 
London,  by  the  Lord  Mayor,  Aldermen,  and  Commons 
in  Common  Council  assembled ; "  and  that  no  petition 
should  be  delivered  to  the  King  or  either  of  the  Houses 
of  Parliament  "  by  a  company  of  more  than  ten  per- 
sons." 

But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  by  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  this  Act  appears  to  have  been  com- 
pletely disregarded,  and  to  have  fallen  into  desuetude. 
As  yet,  however,  the  practice  of  petitioning  was  only 
occasional  and  limited,  and  no  real  effort  had  yet  been 
made  to  use  it  as  a  means  of  political  agitation. 

1  See  13  Charles  II.,  cap.  5,  1661. 


CHAP,  i  PETITIONS  15 

Dr.  Johnson,  in  his  pamphlet  entitled  The  False 
Alarm,1  gives  a  humorous  if  slightly  biassed  descrip- 
tion of  the  method  of  getting  up  a  petition ;  but 
he  shows,  nevertheless,  the  occasion  which  petitioning 
sometimes  afforded  for  the  use  of  the  Platform.  He 
says  :  "The  progress  of  a  petition  is  well  known.  An 
ejected  placeman  goes  down  to  his  county  or  his  borough, 
tells  his  friends  of  his  inability  to  serve  them,  and  his 
constituents  of  the  corruption  of  the  government.  His 
friends  readily  understand  that  he  who  can  get  nothing, 
will  have  nothing  to  give.  They  agree  to  proclaim  a 
meeting ;  meat  and  drink  are  plentifully  provided  ;  a 
crowd  is  easily  brought  together,  and  those  who  think 
that  they  know  the  reason  of  their  meeting  undertake 
to  tell  those  who  know  it  not.  Ale  and  clamour  unite 
their  powers ;  the  crowd,  condensed  and  heated,  begins 
to  ferment  with  the  leaven  of  sedition.  All  see  a  thou- 
sand evils,  though  they  cannot  show  them,  and  grow 
impatient  for  a  remedy,  though  they  know  not  what. 
A  speech  is  then  made  by  the  Cicero  of  the  day ;  he 
says  much,  and  suppresses  more,  and  credit  is  equally 
given  to  what  he  tells  and  what  he  conceals.  The  peti- 
tion is  read  and  universally  approved.  Those  who  are 
sober  enough  to  write,  add  their  names,  and  the  rest 
would  sign  it  if  they  could.  The  petition  is  then  handed 
from  town  to  town,  and  from  house  to  house,  and  where- 
ever  it  conies  the  inhabitants  flock  together  that  they 
may  see  that  which  must  be  sent  to  the  King.  Names 
are  easily  collected.  One  man  signs  because  he  hates 
the  papists  ;  another  because  he  has  vowed  destruction 
to  the  turnpikes ;  one  because  it  will  vex  the  parson ; 
another  because  he  owes  his  landlord  nothing ;  one 

1  This  pamphlet  was  published  in  1770,  a  few  years  after  the  time  I  am  now 
writing  of. 


16  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

"because  he  is  rich  ;  another  because  he  is  poor  ;  one  to 
show  that  he  is  not  afraid ;  and  another  to  show  that 
he  can  write." 

Another  somewhat  analogous  practice  to  petition- 
ing which  was  recognised  in  the  Constitution  was 
also  conducive  to  the  use  of  the  Platform,  though 
by  no  means  to  the  same  extent — that  of  presenting 
addresses  to  the  Sovereign.  These  were  more  restricted 
in  the  nature  of  their  contents  than  petitions,  and  were 
generally  more  complimentary  and  adulatory  in  their 
character. 

Eecourse  had  frequently  been  had  to  them  in  previous 
reigns,  generally  on  the  occasion  of  the  accession  to  the 
throne  of  a  new  sovereign,  and  though  an  address  did 
not  necessitate  a  meeting  and  speechifying  such  as  we 
now  associate  with  the  name  of  the  Platform,  still  in 
many  cases  a  meeting  of  a  sort  was  held,  and  we 
may  safely  therefore  assume  that  speeches  of  a  sort 
were  delivered. 

In  fact,  the  description  "  We,  the  High  Sheriff, 
noblemen,  gentlemen,  clergy,  and  freeholders,"  had 
become  already  a  stereotyped  form  of  address  when 
the  third  of  the  Georges  came  to  the  throne  in  1760. 
On  his  accession,  a  very  large  number  of  addresses  were 
presented  to  him  condoling  with  him  on  the  death  ol 
his  royal  grandfather,  and  conveying  to  him  assurances 
of  loyal  devotion.1 

"  The  High  Sheriff,  Gentlemen,  Clergy,  and  Free- 
holders of  the  County  of  Derby,"  sent  him  an  address. 
"  The  Lord-Lieutenant  and  Gustos  Rotulorum,  Nobility, 
High  Sheriff,  Gentlemen,  Clergy,  and  Freeholders  of  the 
County  of  Stafford,"  addressed  him,  and  other  counties, 
boroughs,  and  corporations  too  numerous  to  mention ; 

1  See  Lojidon  Gazette,  January  1761. 


CHAP,  i  PETITIONS  17 

and  though  it  is  not  always  stated  that  the  addresses  were 
from  persons  "  in  public  meeting  assembled,"  yet  from 
the  terms  in  which  some  of  the  addresses  were  signed, 
it  is  clear  that  they  emanated  from  meetings.  And  a 
couple  of  years  later,  namely  in  1762,  the  practice 
was  again  had  recourse  to  in  a  different  matter,  and 
on,  for  the  time,  a  large  scale  ;  and  from  the  account 
of  the  occurrence  given  in  a  work  called  The  History  of 
the  Minority,  it  is  clear  that  Addresses  to  the  Throne, 
sometimes  at  least,  proceeded  from  meetings,  and  that 
the  signatures  were  not  merely  collected  by  a  house-to- 
house  visitation. 

"The  victory  (i.e.  the  Parliamentary  approbation 
of  the  peace  with  France  in  1762)  being  as  complete 
as  the  '  favourite '  (Lord  Bute)  could  wish,  he  had 
now  nothing  to  do  but  to  try  the  force  of  corruption 
among  the  people,  in  order  to  obtain  another  mode 
of  approbation.  The  Lieutenants  of  the  Counties  had 
begging  letters  sent  to  them  entreating  them  to  use 
their  utmost  influence  towards  procuring  addresses. 
The  mayors  and  other  magistrates  of  corporations, 
the  leading  men  in  societies,  and  every  person  who 
had  influence  enough  to  collect  ten  or  twelve  men 
together,  were  all  applied  to  for  addresses  on  (i.e. 
in  approbation  of)  the  peace.  .  .  .  No  means-,  honour- 
able or  base,  abject  or  forcible,  were  left  untried 
to  obtain  these  prostitute  addresses.  .  .  .  Some  of 
them  came  from  counties  which  never  met  to  consider 
them,  with  subscriptions  (signatures)  mendicated 
from  house  to  house,  of  such  as  could  be  prevailed 
upon  to  sign  them.  Others  were  surreptitiously 
procured  from  packed  assemblies,  to  which  those  only 
were  secretly  invited  whose  subserviency  to  a  job  was 
secured,  and  opposed  by  others  accidentally  present. 


i8  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

"They  were,  in  general,  devised  and  dictated  by  some 
favourite  tool  of  administration."  l 

There  were  thus  two  most  valued  and  important 
public  practices,  which  contained  the  germs  or  seed  of 
the  Platform  —  the  practice  of  Petitioning,  and  the 
custom  of  Addresses. 

More  important,  however,  than  the  tendency  to  the 
Platform  encouraged  by  the  exercise  of  the  right  of 
"  Petitioning  "  and  the  practice  of  "  Addressing  "  was  the 
fact  that,  on  the  somewhat  rare  occasions  of  the  election 
of  representatives  to  serve  in  Parliament,  the  Platform 
did  actually  exist  in  one  of  its  phases  at  this  time,  and 
might  have  been  seen  in  actual  operation.  Here  it  was 
recognised  by  Government  as  so  necessary  a  right, 
that  in  all  the  chances  and  changes  of  history,  and 
all  the  attempts  made  to  suppress  free  speech,  no 
attempt  was  ever  made  to  interfere  with  public  meet- 
ings or  free  speech  at  the  time  of  an  election.  In  a 
more  or  less  nebulous  sort  of  way  it  had  thus  existed 
for  a  considerable  period,  though  not  giving  evidence  of 
its  future  development,  nor  awakening  even  a  suspicion 
of  the  part  it  was  to  take  in  the  political  life  of  the 
kingdom.2 

It  was  known  here  under  the  name  of  the  "Hustings." 
By  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  practice  was 
not  uncommon  for  the  candidates  to  appear  on  the  hust- 
ings, and  to  address  the  electors.  In  the  metropolis 
the  Platform  was  much  used  at  election  time.  Here, 
in  the  three  constituencies  —  the  city  of  London,  the 

1  See   The  History  of  the  Minority  was  by  show  of  hands.     So  late  as  the 
during  the  years  1762,  1763,  1764,  and  reign  of  James  I.  the  right  to  a  poll 
1765.     London  1765,  p.  88.  when  demanded  was  not  completely 

2  Up  to  the  time  of  Henry  VI.,  when  established.     See   The  InstitiUions  of 
the  law  respecting  40s.  freeholders  was  the  English   Government,    by   Homer- 
passed,  there  is  no  trace  whatever  of  sham  Cox. 

any  instance  of  polling ;   an  election 


CHAP,  i  THE  PLATFORM  AT  ELECTIONS  19 

city  of  Westminster,  and  the  borough  of  Southwark, 
and  sometimes,  too,  in  the  county  of  Middlesex — not 
alone  did  an  election  seldom  pass  without  a  contest ; 
but  as  the  constituencies  were  large,  and  the  electors 
numerous,  being  several  thousands  in  number,  there 
was  a  very  large  amount  of  platforming  or  speech- 
making  on  each  occasion.  The  metropolis  then  led  other 
places  almost  altogether  in  the  matter  of  politics,  and 
the  use  of  the  Platform  was  thus  suggested  to  the 
country ;  but  from  the  nature  of  the  other  constitu- 
encies at  the  time,  the  example  was  not  one  which 
could  be  very  widely  followed. 

Elections  were  by  no  means  so  frequent  in  the 
middle  of  the  last  century  as  they  have  been  in  the 
present  century,  Parliament  then  generally  continuing 
to  the  full  term  of  its  prescribed  existence  of  seven 
years  ;  and  it  was  only  in  the  case  of  contested  elections 
that  more  than  a  nominal  or  formal  recourse  was  had 
to  the  Platform.  In  those  few  cases  where  a  contest 
occurred,  the  Platform  was  confined  to  the  county, 
town,  where  the  election  took  place,  and  then  to  but  a 
very  limited  auditory,  for  travelling  was  difficult  in 
those  days,  the  distances  in  large  counties  very  great, 
and  the  assemblage  of  large  numbers  of  the  people 
practically  an  impossibility.  Moreover,  votes  being 
given  for  more  tangible  reasons  than  political  convic- 
tions, the  proceedings  on  the  hustings  were  rendered 
considerably  less  attractive  than  they  otherwise  would 
have  been. 

Nor  were  such  speeches  as  were  made  reported  at 
any  length  in  the  newspapers.  One  speech  appears  to 
have  escaped  the  general  neglect  of  such  Platform 
oratory  as  there  was  at  the  general  election  of  1761, 
and  one  or  two  extracts  from  it  are  worth  quoting,  as  it 


20  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  r 

is  one  of  the  earliest  election  Platform  speeches  which 
was  printed  and  published  at  any  length.  It  was 
delivered  by  Alderman  Beckford  (later  the  celebrated 
Lord  Mayor)  upon  his  being  re-elected  as  member  for 
the  city  of  London.  He  said  :  "I  take  this  opportunity 
of  declaring  in  the  face  of  all  the  Livery  of  London 
that  my  principles  ever  have  been,  and  ever  shall  be,  to 
support  the  religious  and  civil  liberties  of  this  country. 
You  see,  gentlemen,  I  speak  my  mind  freely ;  a  decent 
freedom  is  the  first  privilege  of  a  member  of  Parliament, 
and,  therefore,  I  hope  I  may  give  no  offence  whatsoever. 
I  am  sure  I  never  intended  it ;  yet  I  am  very  sensible 
that,  while  I  have  sat  in  Parliament,  I  have  given 
offence ;  but  I  declare  publicly,  herein,  I  never  did  say 
anything  against  men,  but  against  measures ;  the  opposi- 
tion I  sometimes  made  has  been  to  measures  and  not 
to  men.  .  .  .  You,  gentlemen,  are  the  first  city  of  the 
kingdom.  You  are  in  point  of  riches  and  in  point  of 
influence  superior,  and  all  the  nation  will  take  example 
from  your  city  ;  therefore,  I  hope  the  same  independence 
which  you  have  shown  upon  every  occasion  you  will 
still  continue,  and  that  you  will  set  an  example  to  all 
other  cities  and  boroughs  of  this  kingdom  of  that  in- 
dependence, and  that  uncorrupt  conduct  you  have  been 
always  famous  for. 

"  Gentlemen,  our  constitution  is  deficient  in  only 
one  point,  and  that  is,  that  little  pitiful  boroughs  send 
members  to  Parliament  equal  to  great  cities ;  and  it  is 
contrary  to  the  maxim  that  power  should  follow  pro- 
perty. Therefore,  it  becomes  you  of  the  Livery  of 
London  to  be  extremely  upon  your  guard,  as  you 
have  been  on  the  present  occasion,  to  choose  members 
that  are  entirely  independent ;  and  I  do  most  heartily 
congratulate  you  upon  your  present  choice  of  the 


CHAP,  i  THE  GENERAL  ELECTION  OF  1761  21 

other  three  members.  As  to  myself  I  have  nothing 
to  say." 

It  is,  it  must  be  acknowledged,  a  good  specimen  of 
election  oratory,  and  is  additionally  interesting  as  show- 
ing how  early  in  our  history  the  question  of  Parlia- 
mentary reform  was  thought  of  by  public  men  and 
spoken  of  from  the  Platform. 

From  what  purports  to  be  a  correct  list  published  in 
The  Gentleman's  Magazine  of  176 11  of  the  contests  at 
the  general  election  of  that  year,  the  first  in  George 
III.'s  reign,  there  were  contests  in  only  two  counties2  in 
England,  and  in  only  sixteen  boroughs,  while  there  was 
no  contest  either  in  Wales  or  in  Scotland ;  and  how 
trumpery  these  contests  in  some  cases  were  may  be 
imagined  from  the  fact  that  in  five  of  the  sixteen 
boroughs  contested,  the  number  of  votes  polled  by  the 
successful  candidate  was  under  100.  This  election  was, 
however,  a  specially  quiet  one. 

Lord  Stanhope,  in  his  History  of  England?  thus 
described  it :  "  The  elections  which  took  place  during 
March  and  April  were  not  marked  by  any  outburst  of 
popular  feeling.  So  hushed  had  been  the  old  invectives 
of  party  during  Pitt's  administration — so  faint  were  as 
yet  the  new — that  scarce  any  war-cry  remained  to  the 
contending  factions,  and  that  the  contests  turned  on 
persons  rather  than  on  principles.  For  that  very  reason, 
however,  no  previous  general  election  had  been  marked 
by  greater  venality.  The  sale  of  boroughs  to  any 
wide  extent  may  be  dated  from  this  period."4 

But  besides  the  actual  contested  elections  there  was 
a  preliminary  proceeding  in  connection  with  a  general 

1  See    The    Gentleman's    Magazine,  3  Lord  Stanhope's  History  of  Eng- 
May  1761.                                                      land,  vol.  iv.  p.  329. 

2  Durham  and  Hertfordshire.  4  See  also  Hallam,  vol.  iii.  p.  402. 


22          THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

election  which  fostered  and  encouraged  public  meetings 
of  a  sort,  and  consequently  the  Platform  in  some  small 
degree,  namely,  the  meetings  held  for  the  selection  of 
candidates.  In  the  newspapers  of  1761  there  are 
numerous  election  addresses  from  candidates  basing 
their  claims  on  the  fact  of  their  having  been  selected  at 
a  general  meeting  of  the  freeholders.1 

"  As  I  had  the  honour  to  be  nominated  and  approved 
at  a  very  numerous  meeting  of  the  freeholders,"  is  a 
common  commencement  to  their  addresses.  In  fact, 
this  appears  in  counties  and  any  large  constituencies 
to  have  been  the  almost  invariable  practice,  though, 
of  course,  in  the  majority  of  cases,  it  was  little  more 
than  a  form. 

But  of  the  Platform  itself  in  these  times,  and  on 
these  occasions,  little  is  to  be  gathered  from  contem- 

o 

porary  writings,  for  the  speeches,  so  far  as  the  elections 
in  the  country  were  concerned,  were  not  deemed  worth 
reporting  by  the  newspapers  of  the  time ;  in  fact,  the 
reports  of  the  proceedings  generally,  except  those 
relating  to  the  metropolis,  were  extremely  meagre, 
scarcely  giving  more  than  the  names  of  the  men  who 
were  returned  as  members,  and  only  in  some  cases  giving 
the  number  of  votes. 

From  all  which  we  may  conclude  that  though  the 
Platform  was  to  a  certain  extent  actually  in  operation 
at  election  time,  and  though  an  election  in  some  cases 
necessitated  a  moderate  use  of  it,  it  had  little  or  no 
influence,  little  or  no  power.  That  it  was  there,  how- 
ever, is  the  main  fact  for  us,  for  there  lay  the  seed  from 
which  the  mightiest  power  was  later  to  be  developed. 

Summarising,  then,  the  position  of  the  Platform  at 
the  middle  of  the  last  century,  or  rather  at  the  begin- 

1  See  The  Public  Advertiser,  1761  ;  also  Lloyd's  Evening  Post,  1761. 


CHAP,  i  THE  PLATFORM  IN  1760  23 

ning  of  the  long  and  eventful  reign  of  George  III., 
some  ten  years  later,  it  would  appear  first,  that  the 
great  religious  revival  had  stirred  those  feelings,  and 
awakened  those  ideas,  which  in  reality  lie  at  the  bottom 
of  our  democratic  form  of  government ;  and  next,  that 
increasing  numbers  of  the  people  of  the  nation  were 
awaking  to  a  sense  of  their  own  rights  and  interests — 
were  becoming  more  desirous  of  participating  in  their 
own  government.  These  were  the  great  contributing 
causes  to  the  Platform,  the  circumstances  which  created 
the  need  for  it. 

In  the  "  hustings  "  the  people  had  an  example — an 
imperfect  and  occasional  one,  but  still  an  actual  present 
example — of  how  they  might  attain  to  participation  in 
political  authority.  In  the  exercise  of  the  right  of 
"  petition  "  to  the  King  and  Parliament,  they  were  able 
to  realise  the  possession  of  the  means  of  at  least  pre- 
senting their  views  to  the  Executive  and  the  Legis- 
lature ;  and  the  idea  of  association  for  political  objects 
had  been  in  some  small  measure  already  suggested  to 
them. 

Nor  is  it,  I  think,  too  much  to  say  that  the  whole 
of  the  natural  tendencies  and  popular  inclinations  were 
towards  "the  Platform,"  that  the  sentiments  of  the 
people  were  strongly  determined  in  favour  of  freedom  of 
speech,  and  of  its  use ;  that  all  the  ways  and  manners 
of  life  and  business  in  England  had  in  them  decided 
tendencies  towards  associations,  meetings,  and  speeches ; 
and  finally,  that  the  self-governing  genius  of  the  people 
was  most  essentially  and  eminently  one  which  required 
some  greater  outlet  than  was  afforded  by  the  narrow  and 
restricted  system  of  Parliamentary  representation  then 
existing. 

To  complete  our  examination  of  the  position  and 


24  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  I 

prospects  of  the  Platform  at  this  period,  the  reverse  of 
this  picture  must  be  given.  It  can  be  portrayed  in 
bolder  and  more  decided  colours,  for  arrayed  in  opposi- 
tion to  all  that  the  Platform  implied  stood  the  King, 
the  House  of  Lords,  and  even  the  House  of  Commons. 

When  George  III.  ascended  the  throne  in  1760, 
England,  under  the  guidance  of  William  Pitt  the  elder, 
had  reached  a  height  of  fame  and  power  never  before 
attained,  and  the  glory  was  the  more  striking  by  con- 
trast with  the  humiliating  position  of  the  country  when 
he  was  called  to  the  Ministry. 

"  Under  him,"  said  Edmund  Burke,  writing  in  the 
Annual  Register  of  176 1,1 "  Great  Britain  carried  on  the 
most  important  war  in  which  she  ever  was  engaged, 
alone  and  unassisted,  with  greater  splendour,  and  with 
more  success  than  she  had  ever  enjoyed  at  the  head  of 
the  most  powerful  alliances.  Alone,  this  island  seemed 
to  balance  the  rest  of  Europe." 

At  home  the  country  was  prosperous  and  the  people 
contented,  proud  of  their  successes  abroad,  and  hailing 
with  enthusiasm  the  accession  to  the  throne  of  a  young 
King,  more  English  than  any  of  his  immediate  prede- 
cessors. In  one  of  the  numerous  addresses  presented  to 
the  King  on  his  accession  to  the  throne,  there  is  a 
description  of  the  state  of  the  popular  feeling,  which, 
high-flown  though  it  reads,  was  not  exaggerated.2 

"  It  gives  us  great  pleasure,"  wrote  the  Staffordshire 
gentry  and  freeholders,  "  and  must  afford  your  Majesty 
the  highest  satisfaction,  to  find  no  other  contest  among 
your  subjects  than  what  arises  from  a  noble  emulation 
to  excel  each  other  in  loyalty  and  affection  to  your 
Majesty's  person  and  government ; "  and  Alderman 

1  Annual  Register,  1761,  p.  47.  2  See   The  London   Gazette,   6th  to 

10th  January  1761. 


CHAP,  i  GEORGE  III.  KING  25 

Beckford,  in  the  speech  which  I  have  already  referred  to, 
thus  described  the  happy  condition  of  affairs:1  "You 
have  upon  all  occasions,  gentlemen,  whenever  any 
attack  was  made  upon  the  constitution  of  this  kingdom, 
readily  stepped  forth  and  stood  in  the  breach ;  and 
you  have  supported  the  liberties  of  the  nation  with 
firmness  and  resolution.  We  are  now  come  to  times, 
gentlemen,  when  there  is  no  occasion  for  that  firmness 
or  that  resolution,  for  we  have  now  (praise  be  to  God 
for  it)  a  truly  patriot  King.  You  have  likewise  a 
patriot  Minister,  and  therefore  it  will  be  your  own  fault 
if  you  are  not  the  happiest  people  in  all  Europe." 

It  was  not,  however,  their  fault  that  they  did  not  long 
remain  so.  The  earliest  acts  of  the  young  King  added  to 
his  popularity.  In  his  first  speech  to  Parliament2  he  said : 
"  Born  and  educated  in  this  country,  I  glory  in  the  name 
of  Briton,  and  the  peculiar  happiness  of  my  life  will  ever 
consist  in  promoting  the  welfare  of  a  people  whose 
loyalty  and  warm  affection  to  me  I  consider  as  the 
greatest  and  most  permanent  security  of  my  throne." 

And  a  few  months  after,  as  a  sort  of  earnest  of 
favours  to  come,  he  declared  that  he  looked  upon  the 
independency  and  uprightness  of  the  judges  of  the  land 
as  essential  to  the  impartial  administration  of  justice,  as 
one  of  the  best  securities  to  the  rights  and  liberties  of  his 
loving  subjects,  and  as  most  conducive  to  the  honour  of 
the  Crown ;  and,  with  a  view  of  securing  them  greater 
independence,  he  recommended  that  their  tenure  of 
office  should  no  longer  terminate  on  the  demise  of  the 
Sovereign — a  recommendation  which  was  readily  adopted 
by  Parliament. 

His  tone,  however,  soon  changed,  and  his  true  dis- 
position quickly  began  to  make  itself  apparent.  Satu- 

1  See  Reads  Weekly  Journal,  llth  April  1761.          2  November  1760. 


26  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

rated  with  the  ideas  of  an  autocrat,  he  determined  to  be 
King  in  fact,  and  not  merely  in  name.  Resolutely  did 
he  set  his  face  against  all  popular  claims  or  ambitions, 
resolutely  did  he  refuse  to  submit  to  the  guidance  or 
even  advice  of  his  Ministers. 

His  first  real  act  of  administration  was  to  get  rid  of 
his  Whig  Ministers,  somewhat  tentatively  at  first,  re- 
moving some  of  those  who  occupied  smaller  offices,  and 
replacing  them  with  members  of  the  Tory  party,  who, 
after  long  devotion  to  the  expelled  Stuart  dynasty,  had 
now  become  reconciled  to  an  English-born  sovereign, 
though  of  the  house  of  Guelph.  Soon  his  proceedings 
in  this  direction  gathered  pace.  In  March  1761,  when 
Parliament  was  dissolved,  Legge,  the  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer,  Pitt's  colleague,  was  dismissed,  and  the  Earl 
of  Bute,  a  Scotchman  and  a  Tory,  was  appointed  Secre- 
tary of  State  ;  and  so  eager  did  the  King  soon  become  in 
the  management  of  State  affairs  that,  while  the  general 
election  was  pending,  he  went  the  length  of  interfering 
in  the  future  composition  of  the  House  of  Commons,  by 
appropriating  to  himself  a  share  in  the  nomination  of 
members  for  the  government  boroughs — a  proceeding 
which  was  then  feasible,  owing  to  the  extraordinary 
system  of  popular  representation  existing  at  the  time. 
At  last  the  final  blow  of  the  change  of  policy  was  struck, 
and  in  October  Pitt,  the  great  Minister,  was  forced  to 
resign — Pitt,  who  "  was  called  to  the  Ministry  by  the 
voice  of  the  people,"  who  had  held  it  with  their  appro- 
bation, and  under  whom,  "  for  the  first  time,  administra- 
tion and  popularity  were  seen  united." 

The  description  of  the  scene  at  the  Cabinet  which 
ended  in  this  result  is  preserved  for  us  in  the  pages  of 
the  Annual  Register?  and  is  instructive  in  showing  the 

1  Annual  Register,  1761,  p.  43. 


CHAP,  i  THE  DISMISSAL  OF  PITT  27 

spirit  of  the  Ministers  with  whom  Pitt  had  been 
associated,  and  who  were  to  continue  the  Government 
when  he  ceased  to  be  Minister. 

Pitt  had  recommended  an  immediate  as  against  a 
later  declaration  of  war  against  Spain.  "  This  was  the 
time,"  he  declared,  "  for  humbling  the  whole  house  of 
Bourbon ;  that  if  this  opportunity  were  let  slip,  it  might 
never  be  recovered  ;  and  if  he  could  not  prevail  in  this 
instance,  he  was  resolved  that  this  was  the  last  time  he 
should  sit  in  that  Council.  He  thanked  the  Ministers  of 
the  late  King  for  their  support;  said  he  was  himself 
called  to  the  Ministry  by  the  voice  of  the  people,  to 
whom  he  considered  himself  as  accountable  for  his 
conduct ;  and  that  he  would  no  longer  remain  in  a 
situation  which  made  him  responsible  for  measures  he 
was  no  longer  allowed  to  guide." 

Lord  Granville,  who  presided  in  this  Council,  made 
him  this  reply  :  "  I  find  the  gentleman  is  determined  to 
leave  us,  nor  can  I  say  I  am  sorry  for  it,  since  he  would 
otherwise  have  certainly  compelled  us  to  leave  him  ;  but 
if  he  be  resolved  to  assume  the  right  of  advising  his 
Majesty,  and  directing  the  operations  of  the  war,  to  what 
purpose  are  we  called  to  this  Council  ?  When  he  talks 
of  being  responsible  to  the  people,  he  talks  the  language 
of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  forgets  that  at  this  board 
he  is  only  responsible  to  the  King." 

"Or  right  or  wrong,"  wrote  a  very  acute  political 
observer  in  the  last  century,1  "  from  that  moment,  from 
the  resignation  of  a  servant  '  given  by  the  people  to  the 
King,'  a  distinction  was  formed  between  the  views  of 
the  Court  and  the  interests  of  the  people." 

It  is  evident  from  these  facts — the  supplanting  of 
Whig  Ministers  with  Tories,  the  manipulation  of  the 

1  The  History  of  Two  Acts,  p.  x. 


28  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

constitution  of  the  House  of  Commons  by  the  King 
himself,  and  from  the  stupid  sneer  of  the  President  of 
the  Council  about  responsibility  to  the  people — that 
neither  the  Sovereign,  nor  the  Ministers,  who  were  mere 
tools  in  his  hands,  would  be  disposed  to  tolerate  any 
symptoms  of  independence  on  the  part  of  the  people, 
either  in  the  public  expression  of  their  views  on  political 
measures,  or  still  less  in  any  political  action,  and  that 
the  Platform  or  the  voice  of  the  people  would  have  to 
contend  against  the  full  strength  of  those  great  powers 
in  the  State. 

Next  in  order  to  the  Sovereign  and  his  Ministers  was 
the  House  of  Lords.  Tory  as  a  whole,  the  Upper  House 
contained,  nevertheless,  a  considerable  Liberal  element ; 
for  many  of  the  great  noblemen  of  the  country  were 
constantly  contending  for  their  own  power  and  author- 
ity, and  were  by  no  means  disposed  to  submit  to  any 
encroachments  of  the  authority  of  the  Crown.  But, 
except  as  using  the  people  as  an  instrument  against 
persons  or  measures  hostile  to  themselves,  they  were 
little  disposed  to  regard  with  favour  any  attempt  on 
the  part  of  the  people  really  to  assume  power  inde- 
pendent of  them. 

Lastly,  there  was  the  third  estate  of  the  realm — 
the  House  of  Commons.  That  House  ought  to  have 
been  the  guardian,  and  protector,  and  champion  of  the 
people,  and  of  their  interests,  but,  owing  to  causes  here- 
after fully  described,  it  was  at  this  period  as  hostile  to 
them  as  either  the  Lords  or  the  Sovereign,  and  was  as 
intensely  jealous  of  its  own  authority,  and  as  vehemently 
resentful  against  any  shadow  of  popular  trespass  or 
encroachment  on  its  particular  sphere,  as  even  the  most 
Tory  member  of  the  House  of  Lords,  or  the  still  more 
autocratic  Sovereign  on  the  throne  could  have  wished. 


CHAP,  i          THE  COMPOSITION  OF  PARLIAMENT  29 

The  House  of  Commons  consisted  of  558  members — 
513  for  England  and  Wales,  and  45  for  Scotland.  The 
greater  number  of  these  558  members  owed  their  seats, 
not  to  election  by  the  people,  as  might  be  inferred  in 
the  case  of  a  country  reputed  to  be  possessed  of  a  system 
of  Parliamentary  representation,  but  to  direct  nomina- 
tion by  the  Minister  of  the  day,  to  selection  by  great 
county  magnates,  or  to  nomination  by  the  owners  of 
boroughs,  most  of  whom  were,  for  lucre's  sake,  staunch 
supporters  of  the  Ministers. 

There  was,  however,  in  it  also,  as  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  a  popular  element,  the  representatives  of  the  few 
constituencies  that  were  too  large  to  be  bribed,  too  fearless 
to  be  intimidated.  This  element,  though  small  in  numbers, 
contained  men  of  the  first  talents,  of  the  sincerest 
patriotism,  and  of  the  highest  rank  and  wealth.  Few 
though  they  were,  they  rendered  the  utmost  service  to 
the  popular  cause  in  discussing  all  the  measures  of  the 
Government,  and  in  informing  such  public  opinion  as 
there  was  of  the  merits  or  demerits  of  Government 
policy.  But  they  were  quite  unable  to  cope  successfully 
with  the  marshalled  forces  of  the  Government,  and, 
accordingly,  the  majority  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
and  therefore,  in  effect,  the  House  itself,  was  a  pliant 
instrument  in  the  hands  of  the  Ministers  of  the  Crown, 
and  must  practically  be  reckoned  among  the  foes  of  the 
Platform  and  popular  action. 

There  was  thus  a  most  formidable  combination  of 
forces  arrayed  against  the  Platform — King  and  King's 
Ministers,  House  of  Lords  and  House  of  Commons,  and 
those  large  numbers  of  people  who  were  dependent  on 
or  attached  to  those  powerful  bodies  or  personages. 

Formidable,  however,  as  this  array  of  powers  and 
authorities  undoubtedly  was,  there  were  forces  at  work 


30  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

in  the  country  which  would  not  be  deterred  even  by 
such  opposition,  but  which,  despite  all,  would  gradually, 
though  slowly,  press  forward  and  assert  themselves. 

The  division  of  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament  into 
parties,  or  rather  into  factions — uneven  and  unequal 
though  that  division  was — led,  when  a  general  election 
occurred,  to  contests  in  the  larger  constituencies  for 
Parliamentary  representation,  and  these  contests  brought 
home  at  least  to  some  sections  of  the  people  the  import 
of  some  of  the  political  questions  of  the  time,  awakened 
their  interest,  and  incited  them  to  take  a  more  active 
part  in  political  matters.  Moreover,  the  growing  tend- 
encies and  ambitions  and  desires  of  large  sections  of  the 
people  were  all  in  the  direction  of  taking  greater  interest 
in,  and  claiming  a  share  in  the  government  of  the 
country  of  which  they  formed  so  important  a  part. 

Once  the  people,  or  any  portion  of  them,  began  to 
move  at  all  in  politics,  or  to  agitate  for  any  political 
measure,  the  need  for  public  meeting  and  public  speak- 
ing began,  and  the  rise  of  the  Platform  became  inevit- 
able. 

It  might  be  contended  that  the  system  of  repre- 
sentative government  which  was  originally  devised  and 
adopted  by  the  English  people  as  that  which  would  best 
secure  them  the  self-government  they  so  dearly  prized, 
should  have  sufficed  for  all  the  natural  or  legitimate 
requirements  of  the  people.  But  even  had  that  system 
been  perfect,  which  it  was  very  far  from  being,  it  would 
have  sufficed  only  for  the  consideration  by  the  Legisla- 
ture of  the  questions  which  the  representatives  brought 
before  Parliament.  Consultation  and  discussion  among 
the  people  themselves  were  essential  preliminaries  to 
complaining,  or  to  suggesting  remedies.  And  it  was 
just  here  that  some  farther  means  for  public  discussion 


CHAP,  i  THE  NEED  FOR  THE  PLATFORM  31 

than  those  which  existed  at  the  time  were  required. 
The  Press,  useful  though  it  was,  only  in  part  filled  this 
function.  More  was  wanted  than  even  it  could  supply. 
The  Platform  alone  held  out  the  prospect  of  answering 
the  popular  requirements.  It  was,  in  fact,  the  one  way 
by  which  the  people  could  consult  among  themselves 
and  render  themselves  articulate.  The  great  example 
set  by  Parliament  itself  of  meeting  and  discussing  and 
settling  the  affairs  of  the  nation  was  before  them. 
What  better  example  could  they  follow,  what  better 
course  than  meeting  and  discussing  and  saying  their  say 
when  events  occurred  which  closely  and  immediately 
affected  themselves?  Up  to  the  end  of  the  reign  of 
George  II.  the  people  had  submitted  to  the  existing 
state  of  things. 

But  with  the  accession  of  a  new  King,  and  the 
opposition  evoked  and  engendered  by  his  autocratic 
policy,  the  tendencies  of  the  people  towards  action  in 
the  political  affairs  of  the  nation  became  stronger  and 
more  persistent.  They  began  to  have  recourse  to  the 
Platform,  at  first  naturally  and  spontaneously,  and  later, 
as  they  learned  to  appreciate  its  advantages,  and  became 
familiar  with  its  power. 

It  was  not,  however,  without  opposition,  without 
discouragement,  without  long  years  of  suffering,  per- 
secution, and  grievous  trials,  that  the  people  at  last 
made  good  their  right  to  the  Platform  as  the  medium 
of  the  expression  of  their  will,  as  the  instrument  for 
supplying  the  deficiencies  of  the  system  of  representative 
government,  and  ultimately  as  the  censor  and  controller 
of  Parliament  itself. 

The  early  part  of  George  III.'s  reign  may,  I  think, 
be  fairly  assigned  as  the  period  in  our  history  when  the 
Platform  began  to  make  its  appearance  in  public  life — 


32  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

when  the  seeds  long  dormant  began  to  show  above 
ground  and  to  put  forth  their  strength.  Cases  of 
popular  clamour  there  had  been  previous  to  this  date — 
such,  for  instance,  as  the  agitation  in  1733,  when  Sir 
Robert  Walpole  proposed  a  scheme  of  excise  —  but 
it  was  only  in  the  commencement  of  the  reign  of 
George  III.  that  the  Platform  assumed  a  definite  shape 
or  coherence  as  a  system,  and  entered  on  a  steadily 
progressive  career,  the  various  steps  of  which  can  be 
clearly  and  definitely  traced.  It  was  then,  too,  that  there 
occurred  what  may  be  regarded  as  practically  the 
earliest  example  of  the  system  of  Platform  agitation  in 
this  country. 

In  March  1763  the  Government  of  the  day,  with 
Pitt's  successor,  the  Earl  of  Bute,  as  Prime  Minister, 
introduced  into  Parliament  a  Bill  imposing  a  tax  upon 
Cider  and  Perry.  This  law  conferred  on  the  officers  of 
Excise  the  right  of  entering  and  searching  any  private 
house  where  cider  or  perry  might  be  made  at  any  hour 
of  the  day  or  night.  "  This  duty,"  wrote  the  Annual 
Register  of  that  year,  "  was  one  concerning  which  very 
sober  men  might  have  had  their  doubts.  It  gave  to  all 
the  discontented  the  fairest  opportunity  which  could  be 
furnished,  of  raising  a  popular  clamour,  and  inflaming 
the  whole  nation."  This  opportunity  was  as  fully 
availed  of,  as  the  circumstances  of  the  times  admitted. 
The  proposal  was  received  with  the  most  intense  in- 
dignation in  the  cider  counties,  and  a  great  popular 
clamour  arose  at  this  outrageous  infringement  of  the 
privacy  and  sanctity  of  a  man's  own  home.  The  city 
of  London,  ever  ready  to  take  the  lead  in  all  measures 
of  defence  of  public  and  private  liberty,  "  whose  ill- 
temper  had  always  a  most  prevalent  and  extensive 
influence,  exerted  itself  beyond  the  efforts  of  the  most 


CHAP,  i  THE  CIDER  AGITATION  33 

"  violent  periods  to  prevent  this  scheme  from  passing 
into  law," l  and  the  Lord  Mayor,  Aldermen,  and  Common 
Council  "  instructed  "  their  representatives,  in  the  most 
pressing  terms,  to  oppose  it,  and  "they  successively 
petitioned  every  branch  of  the  Legislature  against  it — a 
proceeding  which,  though  by  no  means  illegal  or  blamable, 
has  no  precedent  that  we  can  recollect." 

Lord  Bute  was  told  that  there  was  a  Petition  to  be 
presented  to  the  King.  "  Wounded  to  the  quick  by  a 
resolution  to  carry  the  voice  of  the  people  to  the  throne 
without  his  intervention " 2  he  offered,  if  they  would 
stop  the  Petition,  to  have  the  Act  repealed  next  session. 
The  offer,  however,  came  to  nothing;  the  Bill  was 
pressed  on  through  the  House  of  Lords,  and  the  instant 
it  emerged  from  there,  the  Petition  to  the  King  was 
presented. 

The  Petition  most  humbly  showed  "  that  the  expos- 
ing private  houses  to  be  entered  into  and  searched  at 
pleasure,  by  persons  unknown,  will  be  a  badge  of 
slavery  upon  your  people,"  and  the  petitioners  humbly 
implored  his  Majesty  not  to  give  his  assent  to  so  much 
of  the  Bill  as  subjected  the  makers  of  perry  or  cider  to 
excise  laws.  But  it  was  in  the  cider  counties  them- 
selves that  the  real  Platform  agitation  took  place.  We 
get  glimpses  of  it,  with  its  meetings,  in  the  meagre 
newspaper  reports  of  the  time,  sufficient  just  to  show 
us  what  it  was  like. 

"Gloucester,  llth  April. — On  Saturday  last  an 
address  of  thanks  was  presented  to  Charles  Barrow,  M.P. 
for  the  town,  by  Deputation  from  a  public  meeting  of  a 
large  number  of  his  constituents,  who  drew  up  and 
signed  the  same  at  the  Boothall  in- this  city.""  Two 

1  Annual  Register,  1763,  p.  35.  3  See   The   Public  Advertiser,   14th 

2  The  History  of  the  Minority,  etc.,       April  1763. 
p.  110. 


34  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

days  later — "  At  a  meeting  of  the  gentlemen,  clergy, 
and  freeholders  of  the  county  of  Gloucester,  held  at  the 
Tolsey,  in  the  city  of  Gloucester,  on  this  day,  it  was 
unanimously  resolved  that  the  thanks  of  this  meeting 
be  given  to  Mr.  Chester,  the  worthy  representative  of 
this  county,  for  his  zealous  opposition  to  the  Bill  for 
laying  an  additional  duty  on  Cider  and  Perry,  to  be 
paid  by  the  maker,  and  levied  by  way  of  excise ;  that 
since  the  said  Bill  has,  to  the  misfortune  of  this  county, 
passed  into  a  law,  he  be  desired  in  the  next  Session  of 
Parliament  to  exert  his  utmost  endeavours  to  procure 
the  repeal  of  that  law ;  and  that  whosoever  shall  be 
chose  to  represent  this  county  upon  the  present 
vacancy,  be  desired  to  join  Mr.  Chester  in  endeavouring 
to  obtain  the  repeal  of  the  said  law." : 

The  contemporary  writer  in  the  Annual  Register 
gives  us  some  further  particulars. 

"  Every  method  was  taken  to  continue  the  ferment 
without  doors.  The  fury  of  the  populace  was  let  loose, 
and  everything  was  full  of  tumult  and  disorder.  Viru- 
lent libels,  audacious  beyond  the  example  of  former 
licentiousness,  were  circulated  through  the  nation,  in 
which  nothing  was  sacred,  and  no  character  was 
spared." 

That  the  agitation  must  have  reached  a  consider- 
able height  is  evident  when  we  are  told  that  "the 
discontents  which  this  Act  produced  in  the  cider 
counties  seemed  to  threaten  the  internal  peace  of  those 
parts,  and  Government  was  so  seriously  alarmed  by  the 
probability  of  popular  tumults,  that  they  immediately 
ordered  several  bodies  of  troops  to  march  towards  the 
different  scenes  of  the  expected  disturbance,  and  there 
to  form  a  line  of  some  hundred  miles  in  length,  in  order 

1  See  The  Public  Advertiser,  24th  April  1763. 


CHAP,  i  THE  CIDER  TAX  AGITATION  35 

to  prevent  any  breaches  of  the  peace,  and  to  enforce 
the  execution  of  this  unconstitutional  law." l 

In  the  midst  of  this  contention  the  Earl  of  Bute, 
the  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury  and  the  King's  favourite, 
resigned.2  The  post  of  Prime  Minister  was  conferred 
on  George  Grenville,  but  the  plan  of  the  administration 
was  not  changed,  and  the  new  Government  was  not 
disposed  to  repeal  the  objectionable  tax.  The  agitation, 
though  balked  for  a  time,  did  not  at  once  cease,  for  on 
26th  February  1766,  three  years  later,  several  Petitions 
were  presented  to  the  Commons  from  the  counties  of 
Hereford,  Worcester,  Gloucester,  Devon,  Somerset,  and 
others,  for  the  repeal  of  the  Act  which  imposed  the  tax. 
And  now  "  so  thoroughly  had  many  gentlemen  changed 
their  sentiments  with  regard  to  this  tax,  or  at  least 
with  regard  to  the  mode  of  raising  it,  that  the  Bill  for 
its  repeal  passed  through  both  Houses,  and  received  the 
Royal  assent,  without  meeting  with  any  considerable 
opposition  in  any  part  of  its  progress," 3  and  "  this  first 
victory  was  celebrated  with  every  tumultuous  demon- 
stration of  joy." 

Here,  then,  we  have  on  a  small  scale  the  first 
example  of  the  action  of  the  Platform  with  its  attendant 
meetings  to  petition,  meetings  to  thank  existing  repre- 
sentatives for  conduct  which  was  approved  by  their 
constituents,  and  meetings  to  fix  qualifications  for  any 
new  members,  and  what  also  is  very  memorable,  the 

1  The  History  of  the  Minority,  p.  125  that  the  King  then  told  him,  '  If  you 
(4th  impression).  do  not  carry  this  matter  out  as  I  wish, 

2  Lord  Liverpool  (son  of  the  Prime  we  must  part.'      Lord  Bute  did  not 
Minister)    wrote :     "  My    father    has  acquiesce,    and    Lord    Bute    left    his 
often  told   me   that  George  III.  and  place." — The  Croker  Papers,  vol.  iii. 
Lord  Bute  differed  upon  some  point ;  p.  177. 

that  they  had  a  meeting  in  Kew  Gar-          s  Parliatnentary  History,  1766,  vol. 
dens,  that  at  that  meeting  the  King      xvi.  p.  206. 
urged  Lord  Bute  upon  this  point,  and 


36  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

agitation  was  successful.     The  Platform  had  given  the 
first  proof  of  its  utility. 

It  was  an  episode  in  our  history  but  briefly  referred 
to,  or  lightly  treated  by  many  historians  who  failed  to 
discern  its  true  import ;  yet  was  it  of  far  greater  con- 
sequence in  the  lessons  it  taught,  and  in  the  precedent 
it  set,  than  many  events  on  which  they  lavished  pages 
of  description. 

A  short  time  was  to  elapse  after  this  successful 
inauguration  of  the  Platform  before  the  peace  of  the 
Government  was  again  disturbed  by  its  voice. 

And  here  it  may  be  remarked  that  from  the  very 
outset  of  its  career  down  to  the  present  time  the  one 
abiding  object  of  the  Platform  has  been  to  gain  influence 
over  the  House  of  Commons. 

There  were  two  ways  by  which  that  influence  could 
be  gained  :  the  first  by  influencing  the  electors  in  their 
choice  of  the  component  parts  of  the  House  of  Commons — 
that  is  to  say,  in  the  election  of  the  individual  members 
of  the  House;  and  the  other,  by  influencing  members 
once  they  were  in  the  House,  and  thus  influencing  the 
decisions  of  the  House. 

One  incident  which  occurred  in  the  year  1768  is 
most  instructive  in  showing  how  little  influence  the 
Platform  then  exercised  on  the  component  parts  of  that 
House. 

The  mayor  of  the  city  of  Oxford,  in  conjunction 
with  the  bailiffs  and  several  of  the  aldermen,  eighteen 
in  all,  calmly,  and  in  a  most  business-like  sort  of  way, 
wrote  a  letter  under  their  common  seal  to  the  two  sitting 
members,  stating  that  they  would  elect  them  again  at 
the  next  general  election  for  a  certain  sum  of  money— 
X7500,1 — and  acquainting  them,  that  unless  they  com- 

1  See  the  Western  MSS.,  Parliamentary  Papers,  1885,  vol.  xliv.  p.  410. 


CHAP,  i      SALE  OF  REPRESENTATION  OF  OXFORD  37 

plied  with  that  condition,  they  certainly  should  not 
meet  with  their  support.1  This  letter  was  produced 
in  the  House  by  the  members  who  received  it,  and 
there  read.  Instantly  the  pure  and  immaculate  House 
flashed  up  into  well-simulated  anger.  The  opportunity 
of  gaining  the  credit  of  virtue,  by  indignantly  reprov- 
ing its  own  vices  in  others,  was  too  tempting  to  be  lost. 
The  writers  of  the  letter  were  forthwith  arrested  by 
order  of  the  House  and  committed  to  Newgate  Prison ; 
nor  were  they  discharged  until  after  a  wholesome  con- 
finement, and  after  they  had  set  forth  their  hearty 
sorrow  and  sincere  contrition,  and  had  been  reprimanded 
on  their  knees  by  the  Speaker,2  in  probably  the  most 
exquisitely  Pharisaic  speech  in  the  whole  history  of 
English  Parliamentary  eloquence. 

"  A  more  enormous  crime  you  could  not  well 
commit,"  said  the  Speaker,  addressing  the  kneeling 
penitents  in  the  presence  of  the  whole  House,  "  since  a 
deeper  wound  could  not  have  been  given  to  the  Con- 
stitution itself  than  by  the  open  and  dangerous  attempt 
which  you  have  made  to  subvert  the  freedom  and 
independence  of  this  House.  The  freedom  of  this  House 
is  the  freedom  of  this  country,  which  can  continue  no 
longer  than  while  the  voices  of  the  electors  are  unin- 
fluenced by  any  base  or  venal  motive.  For  if  abilities 
and  integrity  are  no  recommendation  to  the  electors,  if 
those  who  bid  highest  for  their  voices  are  to  obtain 
them  from  such  detestable  considerations,  this  House 
will  not  be  the  representatives  of  the  people  of  Great 
Britain.  Instead  of  being  the  guardians  and  protectors 
of  their  liberties,  instead  of  redressing  the  grievances  of 
the  subject,  this  House  itself  will  be  the  author  of  the 

1  Oldfield's   Representative  History,  -  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xvi., 

vol.  iv.  p.  352.  1768,  10th  February. 


38          THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

"  worst  of  grievances ;  it  will  become  the  venal  instru- 
ment of  power  to  reduce  this  happy  nation,  the  envy 
and  admiration  of  the  world,  to  the  lowest  state  of 
misery  and  servitude." 

The  picture  of  the  House  of  Commons  as  given  by 
the  Speaker  was  incorrect  only  in  this,  that  scarcely 
one  word  of  what  he  said  regarding  the  House  was 
true.  The  House  of  Commons  was  almost  the  reverse 
of  everything  he  depicted  it.  Abilities  and  integrity 
were,  with  few  exceptions,  no  recommendation  to  the 
electors ;  those  who  bid  highest  for  the  voices  of  the 
electors  did  obtain  them  ;  and  the  House  itself  was  the 
venal  instrument  of  power  to  reduce  the  nation  to  the 
lowest  state  of  misery  and  servitude — and  the  worst  of 
the  speech  was  this,  that  the  Speaker  himself  must  have 
known  these  things. 

The  composition  of  the  House  of  Commons  at  that 
time  was,  it  may  be  truly  said,  absolutely  uninfluenced 
by  the  Platform,  if  we  except  two  or  three  of  the 
metropolitan  constituencies. 

An  admirable  description  of  the  general  features  and 
spirit  of  the  first  Parliament  in  George  IIL's  reign  was 
given  in  a  letter  which  appeared  in  The  Gentleman's 
Magazine1  on  the  eve  of  the  general  election  of  1768  : — 

"  The  time  is  now  come  when  the  people  are  acknow- 
ledged to  be  the  fountain  of  power,  and  the  constitution 
of  this  happy  country  reverts  once  more  to  its  first 
principles.  .  .  . 

"  It  was,  I  think,  the  general  and  established  rule  to 
vote  with  the  Treasury  Bench,  and  as  those  who  sat 
there  were  frequently  changed  in  these  last  seven  years, 
the  resolutions  of  the  House  became  as  various  and 
contradictory.  '  No  peace  that  shall  leave  the  two 

1  See  The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  March  1768,  p.  114. 


CHAP,  i         PARLIAMENTARY  CORRUPTION  IN  1768  39 

branches  of  the  house  of  Bourbon  united/  says  one 
Minister :  '  War  everlasting/  echoed  the  worthy  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people.  '  Peace  on  any  terms/  says 
the  favourite  Minister :  '  We  are  an  undone  bankrupt 
nation  ! '  cried  the  House.  '  Cider  ought  to  be  taxed  ! ' 
declared  the  same  genius  :  '  Double  tax  cider,  by  all 
means/  answered  the  Parliament.  '  It  was  a  damned 
thing  to  tax  cider  ! '  exclaims  the  next  dictator :  '  Ay, 
damn  the  cider  taxers  and  all  their  friends/  replied  the 
Commons  of  Great  Britain. 

"  '  America  should  pay  her  proportion  of  her  own 
expenses/  says  the  great  finance  Minister.  '  Nothing 
so  reasonable ! '  cries  Parliament ;  '  we  won't  hear  a 
word  against  it.'  '  America  pays  too  much  already ; 
.  .  .  take  off  their  taxes  and  allow  them  to  trade  with 
other  nations/  were  the  opinions  of  the  next  in  order. 
'  Repeal,  repeal ;  no  taxes,  no  duties !  and  free  ports 
for  America/  resounded  through  St.  Stephen's  Chapel. 
It  would  be  endless  to  recapitulate  all  the  instances  of 
the  most  shameless  servility,  and  want  of  principle,  in 
the  wretched  tools  we  have  just  got  rid  of.  I  hope  we 
shall  never  see  their  like  again." 

The  hope  thus  expressed  was  unfortunately  a  vain 
one. 

At  the  general  election  which  took  place  in  1768, 
at  the  end  of  the  septennial  period  of  Parliamentary 
existence,  the  old  crew  of  "  King's  friends," — sinecure- 
holders,  place-hunters,  jobbers,  and  boroughmongers, — 
all  came  trooping  back  elected,  nominated,  or  appointed 
by  themselves.  "  The  buying  and  selling  of  seats," 
says  Lord  Stanhope,  "  was  probably  more  prevalent, 
and  certainly  more  public  and  notorious  than  in  any 
former  general  election.1 

1  Lord  Stanhope's  History  of  England,  vol.  v.  p.  288. 


40  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

"  I  fear,"  wrote  Weston  on  the  10th  December  1767 
to  his  friend  Underwood,1  "  there  is  no  room  to  doubt 
but  the  vile  traffic  you  mention  is  more  generally  prac- 
tised than  it  ever  was.  The  instances  you  talked  of 
appear  to  me  more  numerous  and  of  greater  magnitude 
than  I  remember  to  have  heard  of  at  any  former  period." 

These  statements  present  at  best  a  gruesome  picture, 
but  we  can  form  from  them  an  idea  of  the  position  of 
the  Platform :  On  one  side,  high  hills  of  prerogative 
and  pretensions  which  would  have  to  be  laid  low  ;  on  the 
other,  pestiferous  valleys  of  corruption  and  abomination 
which  would  have  to  be  filled  up,  before  the  work  of 
the  Platform  should  be  accomplished,  and  the  govern- 
ment of  the  country  brought  into  the  people's  own 
hands. 

Reform  or  progress  must  have  seemed  well-nigh 
hopeless  then  to  men  desirous  of  reform,  for  a  vicious 
circle  existed  which  appeared  to  preclude  the  possibility 
of  making  even  a  beginning.  If  men  bribed  electors 
to  return  them  to  Parliament,  and  if  the  electors  were 
willing  to  be  bribed,  and  to  leave  their  representatives 
a  free  hand  in  Parliament,  what  end  was  there  to  be  to 
it  ?  Where  could  argument  or  reason  or  anything  else 
intervene  ? 

There  was,  it  is  true,  a  small  leaven  of  independent 
constituencies,  there  was  a  small  leaven  also  of  inde- 
pendent members  of  Parliament,  and  a  small  leaven  of 
independent  electors ;  but  was  it  possible  that  they 
could  ever  grow  to  such  strength  as  to  leaven  the  mass  ? 

One  hopeful  sign  there  was  of  a  political  awakening 
of  the  people  at  this  election  of  1768 — a  considerable 
increase  in  the  number  of  contests  as  compared  with 
1761, — hopeful,  because  every  contest  gave  an  impetus 

1  See  Weaton  MSS.,  Parliamentary  Papers,  1885,  vol.  xliv.  p.  409. 


CHAP,  i  THE  GENERAL  ELECTION  OF  1768  41 

to  the  Platform,  and,  for  a  brief  time,  awakened  or 
stirred  the  political  feelings  and  curiosity  of  the  people. 
Even  those  who  were  not  electors  became  participators 
in  the  bustle  and  excitement  of  an  election,  and  thus 
the  circle  of  political  ambitions  and  knowledge  widened. 
Some  fifty-eight  or  sixty  contests  took  place,1  of  which 
eight  were  in  counties,2  and  about  sixteen  in  borough 
constituencies  of  a  respectable  size. 

Amongst  these  contests  was  one  for  ever  memorable 
— that  for  the  county  of  Middlesex — which  resulted  in 
the  return  to  Parliament  of  John  Wilkes,  and  in  the 
establishment  of  the  Platform  once  and  for  ever  as  the 
mouthpiece  of  the  people. 

1    See    The    Political    Register,    by          2  Berkshire,     Cumberland,     Derby- 
Almon,  vol.  iii.  p.  341.  shire,   Essex,  Huntingdon,  Middlesex, 

Norfolk,  and  Westmoreland. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   FIRST   GREAT   PLATFORM   CAMPAIGN 

THE  Middlesex  election  of  1768,  remarkable  in  many 
ways,  is  most  of  all  memorable  for  having  brought  the 
Platform  so  prominently  and  conspicuously  before  the 
entire  country  as  to  rivet  public  attention  on  it,  and  to 
prevent  its  ever  after  fading  into  oblivion.  In  every 
way  the  action  of  the  Platform  on  this  occasion  dis- 
played an  enormous  advance  on  its  previous  effort.  In 
the  agitation  against  the  cider  tax  which  has  just  been 
described,  the  Platform  had  been  resorted  to  only  to  a 
limited  extent — scarcely  a  report  of  its  proceedings 
finding  its  way  into  the  Press — and  the  question  at 
issue  had  been  comparatively  a  small  one,  affecting  only 
a  few  counties  in  the  south  and  west  of  England.  In 
the  agitation  which  sprang  from  this  Middlesex  election, 
and  which  may  justly  be  described  as  the  first  great 
Platform  campaign,  a  constitutional  principle  of  the 
most  vital  consequence  was  involved,  affecting  not 
merely  a  few  counties,  but  every  county  and  borough 
constituency  in  Great  Britain,  and  every  Parliamentary 
elector  in  the  country.  The  actual  struggle  was  between 
no  less  important  combatants  than  the  House  of 
Commons  on  the  one  side,  and  one  of  the  foremost 
constituencies  in  the  country  on  the  other,  and  the 


CHAP,  ii  THE  MIDDLESEX  ELECTION  43 

various  incidents  were  fully  chronicled  in  the  newspaper 
Press  of  the  time,  and  circulated  far  and  wide. 

To  trace  the  struggle  from  the  beginning,  it  is 
necessary  to  go  back  a  few  years,  for  the  earlier  incidents 
in  connection  with  it  occurred  in  the  period  described  in 
the  last  chapter. 

The  central  figure  in  the  strife  on  the  popular  side — 
Fate's  puppet  as  it  were — was  John  Wilkes.  He  had 
been  elected  to  and  sat  in  the  first  Parliament  of  George 
III.'s  reign  as  member  for  Aylesbury.  In  1762  he 
founded  a  periodical  paper  called  The  North  Briton, 
which  he  made  the  vehicle  for  vehement  attacks  on  the 
Government.  On  the  23d  April  1763  the  celebrated 
"  Number  45 "  of  that  paper  appeared,  containing  a 
severe  criticism  on  the  King's  speech,  but  throwing  all 
the  blame  on  the  Ministers,  who,  according  to  the  theory 
of  the  Constitution,  were  responsible  for  it.  So  daring 
a  liberty  was  construed  by  the  Tory  Ministers  into  an 
attack  on  the  King  himself,  and  could  not  for  a  moment 
be  tolerated  by  the  then  Government.  A  "  General  War- 
rant " l  was  issued  by  the  Secretary  of  State,  directing 
the  arrest  of  the  authors,  printers,  and  publishers  of  the 
paper,  without  even  naming  or  describing  them,  and  it 
having  been  ascertained  that  Wilkes  was  the  author  of 
the  obnoxious  article,  he  was  seized  and  sent  to  the 
Tower.  He  obtained  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  and  was 
released  by  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  which  decided 
that,  being  a  member  of  the  House  of  Commons,  the 
privilege  of  Parliament  had  been  violated  in  his  person. 

1  Burgh, inhis Disquisitions (vol.iii. p.  mercy  of  a  set  of  ruffian  officers,  let 

252,1775),  has  described  what  a  General  loose    upon   them   by  a  Secretary   of 

Warrant  was.    "  General  Warrants  are  State,  who  assumes  over  the  persons 

not  a  whit  more  reconcilable  to  liberty  and   papers   of    the   most   innocent   a 

than     the     French     King's     Lettres  power  which  a  British  King  dares  not 

de  Cachet.     A  General  Warrant   lays  assume,  and  delegates  it  to  the  dregs 

half    the   people   of   a   town    at    the  of  the  people." 


44  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

The  King  and  his  Ministers,  however,  were  not  to  be 
thus  easily  baulked  of  revenge,  and  a  formal  prosecution 
was  forthwith  instituted  against  him  for  libel. 

In  January  1 764,  during  his  absence  in  France,  whither 
he  had  gone  for  his  health,  he  was  expelled  from  the  House 
of  Commons  for  having  written  "  a  scandalous  and 
seditious  libel,"  the  "  libel "  being  a  paper  which  had  been 
only  written  and  had  never  been  published,  and  which 
had  been  stolen  from  his  house  at  the  instigation  of  one 
of  the  Ministers.  A  little  later  the  prosecution  resulted 
in  his  conviction,  and  as  he  did  not  appear  to  receive 
sentence,  he  was  outlawed.  The  people  regarded  the 
vindictive  and  high-handed  proceedings  of  his  oppo- 
nents as  nothing  less  than  persecution,  and  extended  to 
him  their  full  sympathy.  But  out  of  sight  abroad,  he  was 
soon  more  or  less  out  of  mind.  Not,  however,  for  long. 

In  1768,  the  seven  years  of  the  life  of  Parliament 
having  expired,  he  returned  home,  and  on  the  very  eve 
of  the  general  election  appeared  on  the  hustings  in 
Guildhall,  and  declared  himself  a  candidate  for  the  city 
of  London. 

Beaten  there,  he  at  once  announced  his  intention  of 
standing  for  Middlesex,  then  a  populous  constituency, 
which  he  did,  and  he  was  returned  for  that  county  at 
the  top  of  the  poll.  As  an  outlaw  he  could  not  have 
legally  stood  for  Parliament ;  but  the  Lord  Chief-Justice 
having  decided  that  the  outlawry  was  illegal,  he  was 
freed  from  all  disqualification  on  that  account ;  and  to 
purge  himself  throughly  from  all  appearance  of  opposi- 
tion to  the  law,  he  surrendered  to  receive  and  undergo 
the  sentence  of  imprisonment  which  was  hanging  over 
him.  How  angry  the  King  was  at  his  election  may  be 
gathered  from  his  letter  to  Lord  North,  the  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer. 


CHAP,  ii  THE  EXPULSION  OF  JOHN  WILKES  45 

"  I  think  it  highly  proper  to  apprise  you,"  wrote 
the  King,  "  that  the  expulsion  of  Mr.  Wilkes  appears  to 
be  very  essential,  and  must  be  effected.1" 

Whilst  in  prison,  Wilkes  addressed  a  letter  to  the 
Secretary  of  State  on  the  subject  of  the  riots  which 
ensued  on  his  imprisonment,  and  on  the  high-handed 
action  of  the  military ;  and  when  Parliament  met  in 
the  following  year  the  House  of  Commons,  incited 
thereto  by  the  King,  on  the  3d  of  February  1769, 
voted  this  letter  "  an  insolent  and  scandalous  and 
seditious  libel,"2  and  upon  motion  made  he  was  ex- 
pelled the  House  by  219  votes  against  137,  a  majority 
of  82,  "  which  is  a  much  smaller  one  than  one  could  either 
wish  or  expect  on  such  an  occasion."  Expelling  him 
was  one  thing,  preventing  his  re-election  was  quite 
another.  He  offered  himself  again  for  election,  and  in 
his  address  to  the  electors  he  very  pointedly  remarked 
"  If  once  the  Ministry  shall  be  permitted  to  say  whom 
the  freeholders  shall  not  choose,  the  next  step  will  be 
to  tell  them  whom  they  shall  choose." 

Within  a  fortnight  he  was  re-elected.  The  very 
next  day  the  now  irate  House  of  Commons  took  the 
momentous  decision  which  was  the  cause  of  all  the 
subsequent  trouble,  and  voted  by  a  mere  resolution 
that  having  been  expelled,  he  was  incapable  of  sitting  in 
the  same  Parliament,  and  that  "  the  election  was  there- 
fore void."  This  view  was  not  accepted  by  the  electors 
of  Middlesex,  who,  on  the  contrary,  in  the  next  month, 
with  much  determination  and  enthusiasm  re-elected 
him  unanimously.  On  the  day  following  this  re-elec- 
tion, so  hot  now  was  the  temper  of  the  King,  King's 

1  See    The   Correspondence  of  King          a  Parliamentary  History,  vol.   xvi. 
George  the  Third  with  Lord  North.  King       p.  545. 
to  North,  25th  April  1768,  vol.  i.  p.  2. 


46          THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

Ministers,  and  "  King's  friends,"  the  House  of  Commons 
again  declared  his  election  void,  and  again  a  new  writ 
was  issued.  This  time  a  Colonel  Luttrell  was  put  up 
by  the  King  and  the  Ministry  (with  a  promise  to  pay 
his  election  expenses)  to  oppose  Wilkes.  At  this  elec- 
tion1 Colonel  Luttrell  got  296  votes  against  Wilkes's 
1143,  and  the  House  of  Commons  having  already 
declared  Wilkes  disqualified  from  being  returned,  de- 
cided that  Colonel  Luttrell  was  duly  elected,  and  gave 
him  the  seat. 

"  The  action  of  the  House  of  Commons,"  wrote  the 
King  complacently  to  Lord  North,2  "  must  greatly  tend 
to  destroy  that  outrageous  licentiousness  that  has  been 
so  successfully  raised  by  wicked  and  disappointed 
men." 

Other  less  one-sided  men  than  the  autocratic 
sovereign  who  wanted  to  have  everything  his  own 
way  thought  differently,  and,  as  the  sequel  proved, 
more  correctly.  The  action  of  the  House  of  Commons 
had  quite  a  different  result  from  what  the  King  antici- 
pated. No  public  measure,  we  are  told,  since  the 
accession  of  the  House  of  Hanover  excited  so  general 
an  alarm,  or  caused  so  universal  a  discontent.3  The 
gist  of  the  dispute  lay  in  this — that  the  chosen  and 
elected  representative  of  the  electors  of  Middlesex  was 
not  disqualified  from  sitting  in  Parliament  by  any 
existing  laWj  but  solely  by  a  resolution  of  the  House  of 
Commons.  Therefore  to  exclude  him  without  statutory 
authority,  and  to  seat  another  candidate  in  his  place, 
was  to  make  a  resolution  of  the  House  of  Commons 
equal  in  effect  to  an  Act  of  Parliament — that  is  to  say, 
equal  to  a  law  made  by  both  Houses  of  Parliament  and 

1  13th  April  1769.  s  g^  The  Annual  Jtegiste-r,  1769,  p. 

1  Correspondence  between  George  III.       68*. 
and  Lord  North,  vol.  i.  p.  9. 


CHAP,  ii     THE  FIRST  APPEAL  TO  THE   PLATFORM  47 

the  Crown.  If  such  a  thing  as  this  could  be  done,  and 
if  a  practically  irresponsible  House  of  Commons  could 
erect  itself  into  a  despotic  power  more  dangerous  even 
than  the  Crown  itself,  there  was  an  end  to  the  Con- 
stitution, to  the  whole  system  of  representation,  and  to 
freedom  of  election. 

The  quarrel  undoubtedly  was  a  very  serious  one. 
A  corrupt  and  subservient  House  of  Commons,  ordered 
by  the  Ministers,  who  were  directed  by  the  King  him- 
self, had  come  into  contest  with  one  of  the  most 
populous,  powerful,  and  intelligent  constituencies  in  the 
kingdom,  and  in  that  contest  was  involved  absolutely 
the  most  vital  of  all  the  rights  of  the  people,  that  of 
selecting  their  own  representatives.  No  event  could 
by  any  human  ingenuity  have  been  contrived  more 
calculated  to  evoke  a  powerful  expression  of  popular 
opinion. 

That  the  King  and  Government  should  provoke 
such  a  quarrel  shows  the  overweening  sense  they  had 
of  their  own  power,  and  the  contempt  they  had  for  the 
people.  The  result  must  have  come  upon  them  as  a 
disagreeable  surprise.  For  the  first  time  in  the  history 
of  the  country  the  Platform  was  appealed  to  on  a 
widely  extended  scale ;  it  was  adopted  by  the  popular 
party  as  a  weapon  both  of  defence  and  offence,  and  was 
employed  as  a  political  engine,  with  the  deliberate  and 
avowed  object  of  directly  contesting  and  influencing  the 
action  of  Parliament.  Many  people  who  up  to  this  had 
been  impassive  and  easy-going,  felt  the  greatness  of  the 
provocation  given  them  by  the  Government,  and  the 
importance  of  the  issue,  and  they  gathered  together  in 
public  meetings  in  a  manner  hitherto  unknown.  Their 
voice  was  expressed  by  the  Platform,  with  a  vigour  and 
determination  quite  unprecedented,  and  was  conveyed 


48  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

to  Parliament  by  Petitions  in  language  far  less  defer- 
ential than  usual,  and  that  must  have  jarred  strangely 
on  royal  and  Ministerial  ears.  Startling  events  these, 
pregnant  with  consequences  to  be  felt  for  ever  through 
the  history  of  our  country. 

Of  Wilkes's  personal  character  it  is  unnecessary  to 
speak.  Bad  as  it  was,  it  was  forgotten  under  or  con- 
doned by  the  persecution  he  endured.  It  is  strange 
how  often  in  history  a  person  of  indifferent  or  even 
bad  character  is  the  champion  or  figurehead  of  a  great 
principle.  From  1769  to  1772  "he  was  the  sole 
unrivalled  idol  of  the  people,  who  lavished  on  him  all 
in  their  power  to  bestow,  as  if  willing  to  prove  that  in 
England  it  was  possible  for  an  individual  to  be  great 
and  important  through  them  alone." 

The  popular  excitement  increased.  "As  to  the 
Wilkemania,"  wrote  Sedgwick  to  Weston  on  the  4th 
March,  "Heaven  only  knows  how  long  it  will  rage,  how 
far  it  will  extend,  or  what  will  be  the  end  of  it !  Far 
from  showing  any  symptoms  of  abatement  it  seems 
spreading  upward  to  classes  which  are  not  usually  liable 
to  the  infection  of  popular  frenzy," l  and  referring  to 
"  the  great  Mr.  Edmund  Burke,"  who  had  already  shown 
his  intention  of  supporting  the  popular  cause,  he  adds, 
"  Is  it  not  most  extraordinary  that  a  man  of  such  dis- 
tinguished knowledge  should  join  the  incendiary  and  his 
rabble  ?  and  is  not  their  acquisition  of  such  a  leader 
strong  encouragement  to  acts  of  greater  audacity  ? " 

A  detailed  description  of  some  few  of  the  meetings 
enables  us  to  form  a  fairly  accurate  idea  of  the  agitation 
as  a  whole,  and  of  the  action  of  the  Platform. 

It  was  on  the  16th  of  April  1769  that  the  House  of 
Commons  declared  that  Colonel  Luttrell  was  duly  elected. 

1  Weston  MSS.,  Parliamentary  Papers,  vol.  xliv.  1885,  p.  413. 


CHAP,  ii    THE  MEETING  OF  MIDDLESEX  FREEHOLDERS     49 

On  the  very  next  day  the  Platform  broke  silence.  A 
numerous  body,  some  800  or  upwards,  of  the  freeholders 
of  the  county  of  Middlesex  met  at  the  Assembly  Kooms 
at  Mile -end,  to  consider  the  proper  measures  to  be 
pursued  for  maintaining  the  freedom  of  elections,  and 
for  supporting  their  rights  and  privileges. 

The  movement  was  so  natural  and  spontaneous  that 
it  is  evident  this  was  not  the  first  time  they  had 
assembled  together. 

The  chair  was  taken  by  Mr.  Sawbridge,  who  stated 
that  the  reason  of  their  being  called  together  was  to 
consider  of  ways  and  means  to  seek  for  redress  against 
the  invaders  of  their  right  of  election  ;  he  submitted  to 
them  to  consider  and  propose  what  the  law  and  consti- 
tution would  enable  them  to  do  to  prevent  the  fatal 
consequences  of  their  yielding  to  the  methods  that  had 
been  taken  to  set  aside  a  representative  duly  chosen  by 
the  legal  electors  of  any  county  or  place.  A  Mr. 
Townsend,  M.P.,  then  made  "a  very  elegant  and 
animated  speech,"  and  proposed  that  a  committee  of 
100  freeholders  should  be  chosen  to  consider  what 
measures  should  be  adopted  for  obtaining  the  redress 
of  their  grievances,  and  for  fixing  on  a  plan  that  might 
serve  to  confirm  to  them  the  rights  (if  there  were  any) 
that  still  remained  unviolated,  and  to  recover  those 
which  had  been  violently  and  unjustly  wrested  from 
them,  especially  that  important  leading  right  on  which 
all  others  depended — the  right  of  election.  The  Kev. 
Mr.  Home,  Wilkes's  most  vigorous  and  ardent  sup- 
porter, afterwards  better  known  as  Home  -  Tooke, 
made  a  strong  speech.  Some  further  motions  were 
proposed,  and  all  being  carried,  the  meeting  adjourned 
to  the  27th  of  April.1  On  that  day  they  again  met, 

1  The  Political  Register,  by  Almon,  vol.  iv.  p.  296. 


So          THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

and  after  several  speeches  an  address  which  had  been 
composed  in  the  meantime  (by  Mr.  Home)  was  ap- 
proved and  signed.  The  address  was  not  to  the  House 
of  Commons,  but  to  the  King,  and,  far  from  confining 
itself  to  the  mere  question  of  Wilkes's  rejection  by  the 
House  of  Commons,  contained  a  long  list  of  grievances, 
a  regular  letting  loose  of  the  pent-up  waters  of  bitter- 
ness.1 The  King's  opinion  that  the  action  of  the  House 
of  Commons  would  destroy  "  that  outrageous  licentious- 
ness "  was  scarcely  becoming  verified.  The  petitioners 
asserted  that  they  had  seen  English  subjects,  and  even 
a  member  of  the  Legislature,  arrested  by  a  "  general 
warrant,"  issued  by  a  Secretary  of  State,  contrary  to 
the  law  of  the  land  ;  their  houses  rifled  and  plundered, 
their  papers  seized,  and  used  as  evidence  upon  trial,  and 
their  bodies  committed  to  close  imprisonment,  the 
Habeas  Corpus  eluded,  trial  by  jury  discountenanced, 
petitions  treated  unjustly,  by  the  selection  only  of  such 
parts  as  might  be  wrested  to  criminate  the  petitioner, 
and  the  refusal  to  hear  those  which  might  procure 
redress ;  mobs  and  riots  hired  and  raised  by  the 
Ministry,  in  order  to  justify  and  recommend  their  own 
illegal  proceedings,  and  to  prejudice  his  Majesty's  mind 
by  false  insinuations  against  the  loyalty  of  his  Majesty's 
subjects ;  the  freedom  of  election  violated  by  corrupt 
and  undue  influence ;  resolutions  of  one  branch  of  the 
Legislature  set  up  as  the  law  of  the  land  ;  public  money 
shamefully  squandered  and  unaccounted  for ;  and  a  host 
of  other  grievances  too  numerous  to  be  detailed  here. 
"  We  see  ourselves  deprived  even  of  the  franchises  of 
Englishmen,  reduced  to  the  most  abject  state  of  slavery," 
they  said,  and  they1  besought  his  Majesty  "  to  banish 

1  For  a  copy  of  the  Petition   see  The  Political  Register,  by  Almon,  vol.  iv. 
p.  347. 


CHAP,  ii      THE  MIDDLESEX  ELECTION  AGITATION  51 

those  evil  and  pernicious  counsellors  whose  suggestions 
tend  to  deprive  your  people  of  their  dearest  and  most 
essential  rights." 

One  can  picture  to  one's  self  the  stamping  wrath 
with  which  these  statements,  most  of  which  were  true, 
must  have  been  read  by  the  Sovereign  and  his  Minis- 
ters— those  "  evil  and  pernicious  counsellors."  What 
audacity  that  the  sufferers  should  dare  to  state  their 
grievances ;  how  outrageous  that  they  should  resent 
unjust  treatment,  or  venture  to  call  in  question  the 
actions  of  the  Government ;  how  still  more  irritating 
that  full  reports  of  the  meetings,  and  of  the  speeches, 
and  a  copy  of  the  abominable  address  should  be  blazoned 
forth  throughout  the  land  by  the  Press. 

"It  is  surely  in  some  parts  the  most  impudent  paper 
that  ever  was  penned,"  wrote  Sedgwick  to  Weston  ;  "  it 
seems  well  calculated  to  inflame  the  multitude." 

It  was  not,  however,  the  statement  of  grievances 
that  was  likely  to  inflame  the  multitude,  but  the 
grievances  themselves. 

Had  the  affair  ended  here  it  would  have  been 
unpleasant  enough  to  those  in  authority ;  but  it  was 
only  beginning  instead  of  ending. 

The  reports  of  the  speeches  at  the  meetings,  and 
the  copy  of  the  Address,  which  were  published  in  the 
papers  and  spread  far  and  wide,  gave  plenty  of  material 
for  thought  to  fresh  numbers  of  the  people,  and  raised 
many  suggestive  questions. 

"I  see,"  wrote  Sedgwick  to  Weston  on  the  12th 
June,  "they  are  spreading  the  contagion  by  circular 
letters."1 

Some  two  months  later  the  contagion  appears  to 
have  so  far  spread  that  the  citizens  of  London  held  a 

1  See  Weston  MSS.,  Parliamentary  Papers,  1885,  vol.  xliv.  p.  415. 


52  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

meeting  at  the  Guildhall  to  "Address"  or  "Petition" 
as  the  Middlesex  freeholders  had  done.  A  letter  of 
Edmund  Burke,  presumably  to  Lord  Rockingham,  gives 
a  very  graphic  account  of  the  meeting,  and  teaches  us 
something  of  the  Platform  at  this  time.1 

"  This  day,"  he  wrote,  "  I  squeezed  myself  into 
Guildhall,  where  I  remained  until  four  o'clock,  and  I 
assure  you  that  I  am  not  much  more  than  barely 
alive."  " 

"  Mr.  Lovell  (the  author  of  the  Petition  to  which  the 
Livery  agreed)  made  a  speech ;  not  a  bad  one,  had  it 
been  less  oratorical.  Indeed,  I  am  rather  rash  in  saying 
so,  for  when  he  bawled,  as  a  true  orator  ought,  I  did 
not  very  well  hear  him ;  when  he  spoke  under  his  voice 
I  heard  him  very  distinctly.  He  ended  by  reading 
the  Petition.  It  is  in  substance  the  same  as  that  from 
Middlesex,  but  I  think  it  brings  it  more  home  to  the 
King's  Ministers,  not  the  present  only,  but  the  past ; 
and  calls  for  redress  in  very  strong  terms.  It  has  all 
the  absurdities  of  the  Middlesex  Petition,  but  I  think 
that  it  is  a  more  direct  attack,  better  pointed,  and  in 
most  places  better  expressed ;  when  the  Petition  was 
read,  the  mayor  came  forward  and  desired  an  alteration 
in  the  Bill "  (Petition  ?)  "  by  leaving  out  the  words  Lord 
Mayor.  There  was  some  hissing ;  however  Mr.  Pear- 
son read  it  so  altered,  and  then  a  motion  was  made, 
that  the  mayor  and  sheriffs  be  desired  to  deliver  the 
Petition  to  the  King,  and  that  the  four  members  be 
requested  to  attend  the  mayor.  Ladbroke  came  forward, 
and  after  a  good  deal  of  clapping  and  hissing,  he  told 
them  that  he  spoke  merely  to  signify  his  intention 

1  See  Memoirs  of  the  Marquis  of  Rockingham,  by  the   Earl  of  Albemarle, 
vol.  ii.  p.  96. 


CHAP,  ii      THE  MIDDLESEX  ELECTION  AGITATION  53 

of  obeying  their  commands.  The  applause  was  then 
general  and  unmixed. 

"  Beckford  made  his  usual  speech — short  Parliaments 
— every  article  of  the  Petition  true — some  articles  true 
— most  articles  true — all  that  he  had  heard  true — heard 
very  little — his  duty  to  obey  any  commands  of  his 
constituents,  provided  they  are  wise  and  reasonable 
commands,  and  so  forth.  However,  one  expression  he 
did  use,  which  I  think  bold :  that  '  all  our  misfortunes 
arose  from  a  corrupt  and  venal  Parliament.' 

"  Trecothick  then  spoke,  but  I  did  not  hear  a  single 
word.  The  applause,  however,  was  as  full  as  if  all  had 
been  heard.  It  was  indeed  very  great,  and  nothing  but 
that  given  to  Beckford  could  exceed  it.  On  the  ques- 
tion for  the  Petition  there  was  not  a  single  hand  against 
it.  One  man,  indeed,  attempted  to  make  a  speech  in 
opposition  to  it,  but  his  voice  was  drowned  in  a  cry  to 
throw  him  off  the  hustings.  Thus  it  was  carried  with 
all  possible  triumph  and  exultation.  The  conduct  and 
management  was  able,  and  except  the  clamour  of 
applause  and  censure,  nothing  resembling  tumult,  con- 
sidering the  assembly  and  the  occasion. 

"  If  the  Ministry  can  stand  this  the  people  have  no 
influence." 

A  couple  of  days  later,  "  the  gentlemen,  clergy,  and 
freeholders  of  the  county  of  Surrey  "  met  at  Epsom  to 
consider  the  best  constitutional  measures  to  be  taken  in 
support  of  the  right  of  elections,  and  adopted  a  petition 
to  the  King.  By  August  the  country  was  beginning  to 
move  in  the  matter.  The  freeholders  of  Worcestershire 
met  and  petitioned. 

"  We  see,"  wrote  the  Worcester  freeholders,  "  nothing 
in  this  case  which  may  not  become  our  own.  It  appears 
to  us  the  common  cause  of  all  the  electors  of  Great 


54          THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

"  Britain,  against  the  wicked  designs  of  a  set  of  men  who 
have  contrived  by  evil  practices  and  treacherous  artifices 
to  deceive  and  surprise  the  representatives  of  your 
people  into  a  conduct  repugnant  to  the  ends  of  their 
institution,  and  destructive  of  those  rights  which  they 
were  expressly  intended  to  support." : 

Then  the  electors  of  Westminster,  to  the  number  of 
7000,  met  in  Westminster  Hall,  and  after  listening  to 
speeches  adopted  a  petition  to  the  King.2 

In  September  a  very  respectable  meeting  of  the 
freeholders  of  Buckinghamshire  assembled  at  Aylesbury, 
Edmund  Burke  being  among  the  number  of  those 
present,  he  being  at  this  time  an  energetic  supporter  of 
the  Platform.3  A  short  time  previously  he  had  written 
to  Lord  Buckingham,  to  whom  he  was  Private  Secretary : 
"  It  is  the  intention  of  the  Ministry,  and  it  will  be  in 
their  power,  in  case  the  petitioners  should  be  com- 
paratively few,  to  make  an  example  of  terror  to  all 
future  attempts  of  expressing  the  sense  of  the  people 
in  any  other  way  than  by  the  votes  of  the  House  of 
Commons.  ...  If  we  mean  to  get  redress  we  must 
strengthen  the  hands  of  the  minority  within  doors,  by 
the  accession  of  the  public  opinion  strongly  declared  to 
the  Court,  which  is  the  source  of  the  whole  mischief." 

And  after  the  meeting  he  wrote :  "  The  town  hall 
was  quite  full,  not  fewer  than  400,  many  of  them  sub- 
stantial people "  ;  this  too,  "  though  everything  had 
been  done  to  traverse  us ;  the  terrors  of  the  House  of 
Commons  were  held  over  many,  and  the  word  was, 
'  The  King  will  despise  your  Petitions,  and  then  what 
will  you  do  ?  Will  you  go  into  rebellion  ? ' ' 

1   See    Almon's    Political    Register.  cestershire,  and  Liverpool  are  given, 

vol.  v.  p.  119.  vol.  v.  p.  115  of  The  Political  Register, 

1  Copies  of  the  Petitions  from  Bristol,  by  Almon,  1770. 

Cornwall,  Derbyshire,  Hereford,  Wor-  3  Burke's  Works,  vol.  L  p.  91  (1852). 


CHAP,  ii  THE  METHODS  OF  PROCEDURE  55 

A  few  days  later  several  noblemen  and  gentlemen  of 
the  county  of  Gloucester  met,  and  then  Devon,  Somerset, 
and  several  other  counties,  and  Bristol,  Exeter,  and 
several  other  towns,  held  their  meetings,  and  both  by 
the  Platform  and  by  Petition  joined  in  the  general 
protest.1 

It  is  interesting,  in  this  the  first  extensive  Platform 
agitation,  to  look  behind  the  scenes  at  the  discussions  of 
the  leaders  of  the  popular  party  as  to  the  best  line  of 
action  to  be  taken  in  the  circumstances.  All  appear  to 
have  been  in  favour  of  meetings  and  Platforming, 
though  there  was  some  little  difference  of  opinion  as  to 
the  policy  to  be  advocated  from  the  Platform  and  the 
action  to  be  taken  by  the  meetings.2 

Lord  Buckingham  had  no  difficulty  in  approving 
the  mode  of  petitioning  the  Crown  "  as  being  the  only 
adequate  and  proper  measure " ;  and  Burke  gave  his 
voice  in  favour  of  this  course  rather  than  that  of  "in- 
structions to  their  representatives."  "  I  confess,"  he 
wrote,  "  I  am,  when  the  objects  are  well  chosen,  rather 
more  fond  of  the  method  of  petition,  because  it  carries 
more  the  air  of  uniformity  and  concurrence,  and  being 
more  out  of  the  common  road,  and  yet,  I  apprehend, 
constitutional  enough,  it  will  be  more  striking  and  more 
suitable  to  the  magnitude  of  the  occasion." 3 

Lord  Buckingham,  Wedderburn,  and  Lee  sketched 
out  a  Petition  for  the  meeting  which  was  about  to  be 
held  in  York,  but  Sir  G.  Savile,  one  of  the  members  of 
that  county,  pointed  out  the  objection  to  petitioning  the 
King  for  dissolution,  namely,  "  that  it  was  against  the 
stream  of  the  Constitution  to  call  on  the  Crown  for  help 
against  the  House  of  Commons,  and  that  trying  to 

1  See  also  Memoirs  of  the  Reign  of          2  JRockingkam  Alemoirs,vo\.  ii.  p.  105. 
George  III.,  by  Horace  Walpole,  vol.  iii.  3  Burke's  Works,  vol.  i.  p.  85. 


56  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

"  lessen  the  power  of  the  House  of  Commons  was  always 
lessening  liberty  ; "  but  he  evidently  attached  little  real 
importance  to  the  objection,  for  the  same  plan  was 
among  the  three  courses  of  action  which  he  himself 
suggested,  namely,  to  petition  the  King  for  dissolution, 
the  House  of  Commons  for  a  rehearing,  or  to  give 
instructions  to  their  members. 

Ultimately  the  course  adopted  was  to  recommend  a 
Petition  to  the  Crown  for  a  new  choice  of  representa- 
tives. Sir  G.  Savile  attended  the  meeting  at  York,  for 
which  this  Petition  had  been  drafted,  and  he  afterwards 
wrote  describing  it :  "  The  number  of  persons  at  the 
meeting  is  differently  guessed  at,  but  I  fancy  800  is  as 
near  the  mark  as  any,  and  the  property  very  consider- 
able. Sir  G.  Armytage  opened,  by  requesting  the  two 
members  would  give  an  account  of  the  transaction,  their 
opinion  upon  it,  and  their  notions  of  a  remedy.  After 
we  had  done,  he  moved  a  Petition,  was  seconded  by 
Sir  C.  Wray ;  and  here  it  had  like  to  have  ended  unani- 
mous, had  not  one  person  expressed  a  desire  to  be  heard 
against  it.  This  gave  Wedderburn  an  opportunity  of 
answering,  which  he  did  in  a  pretty  long  speech,  and 
very  well.  Three  hands  were  held  up  on  the  first 
question,  but  on  the  final  one  it  was  nem.  con.  The 
proposed  Petition  was  then  read,  which  is,  I  think,  in 
every  respect  by  a  great  deal  the  best  of  any  yet  pro- 
duced in  any  county ;  indeed,  I  think,  the  only  one 
that  is  correct  and  constitutionally  to  the  point." l 

Certainly  this  display  of  popular  feeling,  with  its 
appeal  to  public  meetings,  and  its  startlingly  sudden 
adoption  of  the  Platform  as  a  political  weapon,  was  an 
astonishing  event,  though  it  was  quite  true,  as  remarked 
at  the  time  by  Sir  John  Cavendish,  member  for  York- 

1  Rockingham  Memoirs,  vol.  ii.  p.  136. 


CHAP,  ii  THE  EFFECT  OF  THE  AGITATION  57 

shire  :  "In  public  matters  there  is  no  other  method  of 
collecting  the  sense  of  the  people  than  by  meetings  of 
that  sort." 

This,  however,  was  a  truth  new  to  most  people,  and 
which  had  not  as  yet  gained  any  extended  recognition. 

A  very  remarkable  circumstance  of  this  struggle  was 
that  the  contest  was  one  ostensibly  between  the  people 
and  their  own  House  of  Parliament. 

In  Edmund  Burke's  opinion  "  the  true  contest  was 
between  the  electors  of  the  Kingdom  and  the  Crown, 
the  Crown  acting  by  the  instrumental  House  of  Com- 
mons ; "  and  Burgh,  in  his  Political  Disquisitions,  said  : 
"  In  our  time  the  opposition  is  between  a  corrupt  Court 
joined  by  an  innumerable  multitude  of  all  ranks  and 
stations  bought  with  public  money,  and  the  independent 
part  of  the  nation."  * 

It  mattered  little,  however,  in  reality  whether  it  was 
against  the  Crown  or  the  House  of  Commons  that  the 
Platform  was  actually  striving.  The  evident  fact  was 
that  the  House  of  Commons,  at  the  bidding  of  the 
Crown,  had  arrogated  to  itself  a  power  to  which  it  was 
in  no  way  entitled,  and  the  public  indignation,  which 
found  such  strong  vent  through  the  Platform,  arose 
from  astonishment  that  the  House  of  Commons  should 
be  able  to  do  such  a  thing,  and  should  be  capable  of 
doing  it.  That  was  a  revelation  of  a  danger  to  which 
the  people  were  not  disposed  to  submit  without  vigor- 
ous protest ;  and  here  were  large  numbers  of  them  pub- 
licly meeting  and  expressing  themselves  without  reserve. 
Seventeen  counties,  and  numerous  cities  and  boroughs, 
held  meetings  and  petitioned,  and  the  Petitions,  it  was 
said,  were  signed  by  upwards  of  65,000  of  the  electors— 

1  Political  Disquisitions,  or  an  En-       Abuses,     by    T.     Burgh.       (London, 
quiry  into  Public  Errors,  Defects,  and       1774.) 


58          THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

a  formidable  display  of  opinion  in  those  times  of  our 
history. 

The  influence  of  the  Platform  on  the  House  of  Com- 
mons being  the  principal  test  of  its  power,  it  is  desir- 
able to  ascertain  what  was  the  effect  of  the  agitation  on 
that  House,  and  on  the  Government. 

The  effect  was  considerable.  First  of  all,  the  meeting 
of  Parliament  was  postponed  beyond  the  usual  time. 
That  in  itself  showed  that  the  Government  was  not 
quite  comfortable  in  its  mind,  and  that  it  rather  feared 
the  debates  which  were  sure  to  be  raised. 

Horace  Walpole,  the  gossipy  recorder  of  the  political 
events  of  the  day,  wrote  on  the  6th  November : l 
"  The  imprudence  of  postponing  Parliament  till  after 
Christmas  has  given  time  for  a  large  number  of  Petitions, 
and  more  perhaps  will  follow,  yet  I  do  not  think  the 
general  spirit  so  violent  as  it  should  seem  from  these 
appearances.  It  is  impossible  but  some  mob  may  be 
assembled  everywhere  to  sign  a  Petition,  and  then  such 
Petition  is  called  the  sense  of  the  country,  though  in 
many  it  is  nothing  less  ;  and  besides  the  Scotch  coun- 
ties the  majority  have  not  petitioned.  The  Court  will, 
nay  must,  resist  the  dissolution  of  the  Parliament." 

But  alarmed  as  the  Court  was,  and  irritated  as 
Ministers  were,  the  King  in  his  speech  at  the  beginning 
of  the  session,  which  was  opened  on  the  9th  January, 
ignored  completely  the  whole  agitation,  and  made  no 
reference  to  the  meetings,  to  the  Platform  speeches,  or 
to  the  Petitions.  Perhaps  he  took  the  view  sneeringly 
expressed  by  Walpole  in  his  letter  of  31st  December : 
"  The  Petitions  have  contracted  an  air  of  ridicule  from 
the  ridiculous  undertakers  that  have  been  forced  to 
parade  into  different  counties  to  supply  the  place  of  all 

1  See  Horace  Walpole's  Letters,  vol.  v.  p.  200. 


CHAP,  ii         LORD  CHATHAM  ON  THE  AGITATION  59 

the   gentlemen   who   have    disdained    to    appear   and 
countenance  them."1     Perhaps  he  wished  to  show  his 
contempt  for  the  meetings  and  petitions  by  refusing  to 
notice  them.     Though  it  was  within  his  power  to  do 
this  much,  his  authority  was  not  sufficient  to  prevent 
the  subject  being  debated  in  Parliament,  and  the  very 
day  the  Session  opened,  Lord  Chatham,  still  the  re- 
doubtable champion  of  popular  ideas,  moved  an  amend- 
ment to  the  address  in  the  House  of  Lords  to  the  effect 
that  the  House  of  Lords  would  take  into  their  most 
serious  consideration  the  causes  of  the  discontents  which 
prevail,   and  particularly  the  late  proceedings   in  the 
House  of  Commons  relative  to  the  Middlesex  election.2 
He  declared  that  "  the  alarming  state  of  the  nation  called 
upon  him,  forced  him,  to  come  forward  to  execute  that 
duty  which  he  owed  to  God,  to  his  sovereign,  and  to 
his   country.  .  .  .  The    liberty   of  the  subject   is    in- 
vaded, not  only  in  provinces,  but  here  at  home.     The 
English    people   are   loud   in   their   complaints ;    they 
proclaim  with  one  voice  the  injuries  they  have  received, 
they  demand  redress,  and,  depend  upon  it,  my  Lords, 
they  will  have  redress.     They  will  never  return  to  a 
state  of  tranquillity  until  they  are  redressed ;  nor  ought 
they,  for,  in  my  judgment,  my  Lords, — and  I  speak  it 
boldly — it  were  better  for  them  to  perish  in  a  glorious 
contention  for  their  rights  than  to  purchase  a  slavish 
tranquillity   at   the   expense   of  a   single   iota   of  the 
Constitution.  .  .  .    Great   pains    have    been    taken    to 
alarm  us  with  the  consequences  of  a  difference  between 
the  two  Houses  of  Parliament ;  but  if  apprehensions  of 
this  kind  are  to  affect  us,  let  us  consider  which  we  ought 
to  respect  most — the  representative  or  the  collective 

1  See  Horace  Walpole's  Letters,  vol.  *  Parliamentary  History,  1770,  vol. 

v.  p.  210.  XVL  p.  648. 


60          THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

"  body  of  the  people.  My  Lords,  five  hundred  gentlemen 
are  not  ten  millions,  and  if  we  must  have  a  contention, 
let  us  take  care  to  have  the  English  nation  on  our 
side."1 

That  Lord  Chatham  should  emerge  from  the  retire- 
ment in  which  he  had  for  some  time  lived,  to  take  part 
in  the  battle,  was  in  itself  a  tribute  to  the  power  of  the 
Platform  ;  but  even  greater  tribute  was  the  speech  of  so 
high  and  conspicuous  a  personage  as  the  Lord  Chancellor 
(Camden),  an  actual  member  of  the  Government,  who, 
in  the  course  of  the  debate,  said :  "  That  for  some  time 
he  had  beheld,  with  silent  indignation,  the  arbitrary 
measures  which  were  pursuing  by  the  Ministry ;  that 
he  would  do  so  no  longer,  but  would  openly  and  boldly 
speak  his  sentiments.  That  as  to  the  incapacitating 
vote  by  the  House  of  Commons,  he  considered  it  as  a 
direct  attack  on  the  first  principles  of  the  Constitution ; 
and  that  if,  in  giving  his  decision  as  judge,  he  was  to 
pay  any  regard  to  that  vote,  or  any  other  vote  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  in  opposition  to  the  known  and 
established  laws  of  the  land,  he  should  look  upon  him- 
self as  a  traitor  to  his  trust,  and  an  enemy  to  his 
country ;  that  the  Ministry,  by  their  violent  and  tyran- 
nical conduct,  had  alienated  the  minds  of  the  people 
from  his  Majesty's  Government ;  that,  in  consequence, 
a  spirit  of  discontent  had  spread  itself  into  every  corner 
of  the  kingdom,  and  was  every  day  increasing." 2 

Another  great  legal  authority,  Lord  Mansfield,  was 
practically  of  the  same  opinion,  but  damning  as  was  the 
debate  to  the  credit  and  conduct  of  the  Government, 
Ministers  had  an  easy  triumph  in  the  House  of  Lords 
in  everything  but  right  and  argument,  and  Lord 

1  Parliamentary  History,  1770,  vol.  2  See  The  Gentleman's  Magazine  for 

xvi.  p.  663.  January  1770. 


CHAP,  ii      TORY  VIEWS  ON  PLATFORM  AGITATION  61 

Chatham's  proposed  amendment  to  the  Address  was 
defeated. 

The  real  struggle  took  place  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  though  here  too,  owing  to  the  phalanx  of 
the  "  King's  friends,"  of  placemen,  and  of  pensioners, 
the  issue  was  never  for  a  moment  in  doubt.  Mr. 
Dowdeswell,  with  somewhat  grim  satire,  proposed  to 
acquaint  his  Majesty  of  the  necessity  of  immediately 
inquiring  into  the  causes  of  the  unhappy  discontents 
which  prevailed  in  every  part  of  his  Majesty's 
dominions.1 

The  debate  showed  the  bitter  resentment  and  the 
deep  -  rooted  hostility  that  prevailed  at  this  period 
against  any  action  by  the  people.  The  most  ridiculous 
arguments  were  put  forward  by  numerous  speakers  to 
crush  the  agitation,  or  to  cover  with  obloquy  those  who 
had  taken  part  in  it. 

The  Attorney-General  (De  Grey),  in  defending  the 
Government,  said  :  "Of  the  contrivance  to  support  the 
demand  by  Petitions  for  the  dissolution  of  Parlia- 
ment, I  shall  not  at  present  deliver  my  opinion.  I 
shall  not  declare  whether  I  think  those  who  signed  them 
culpable  or  punishable." 2  And  then  he  went  on  to  lay 
down  a  principle  which  has  been  consistently  held  ever 
since  by  every  opponent  to  the  just  claims  of  the 
people,  and  which  if  admitted  would  have  struck  a  fatal 
blow  at  the  Platform.  "This  House,"  he  said,  "once 
chosen,  is,  to  all  legal  and  constitutional  purposes,  the 
people  collectively,  and  to  suppose  their  judicial  pro- 
ceedings, when  chosen,  to  be  cognisable  by  any  number 
of  the  individuals  who  have  chosen  them,  is  to  subvert 
our  Constitution  from  the  root." 

1  Parliamentary  History,   vol.  xvi.  a  Ibid.  p.  685. 

p.  680. 


62  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

Loathsome  is  the  hypocrisy  of  these  men  accusing 
others  of  subverting  the  Constitution  whilst  they  them- 
selves were  actually  at  work  subverting  it  for  their  own 
sordid  ends.  Mr.  Charles  Jenkinson  said  :  "  The  people 
who  complain  of  the  decisions  of  this  House  cannot  be 
judges  of  the  motives  that  lead  to  those  decisions. 
They  hear  but  one  side  of  the  question.  Those  gentle- 
men who  are  active  in  spiriting  up  the  people  to  an 
opposition,  do  not  fairly  represent  things.  At  their 
meetings  to  harangue  them,  they  only  inform  them  of 
what  they  themselves  have  said  in  this  House,  or  what 
they  have  been  told  others  of  the  same  sentiments  have 
said ;  but  they  carefully  conceal,  or  intentionally  mis- 
represent, what  has  been  urged  on  the  other  side  of  the 
question.  Surely  this  is  not  a  fair  way  of  proceeding. 
...  To  found  the  authority  of  this  House  upon  the 
popular  voice  is  vain  and  idle." 

Another  De  Grey,  Thomas,  by  name,  outdid  even 
his  namesake,  the  Attorney- General,  in  violence  and 
virulence.  "  Will  any  man  say,"  he  exclaimed,  "  that 
the  late  Petitions  are  promoted  by  men  of  worth  and 
probity  ?  The  Petition  from  Westminster  is  a 
demonstration  to  the  contrary.  Of  25,000  respectable 
inhabitants,  two  only,  in  the  rank  of  gentlemen,  could 
be  found  to  countenance  the  Petition.  Every  member 
of  this  House  can  tell  by  whom  and  by  what  means  the 
Westminster  Petition  was  obtained.  They  know  that  a 
ferment  was  kept  up  by  a  few  despicable  mechanics, 
headed  by  base-born  people,  booksellers,  and  broken 
tradesmen,  and  that  the  Petition  was  signed  by  the 
scum  of  the  earth — the  refuse  of  the  people  unworthy  to 
enter  the  gates  of  his  Majesty's  palace." 

Mr.  George  Onslow  said  :  "  I  am  of  opinion  that  the 
petitioners  are  not  men  of  property  either  in  West- 


CHAP,  ii     TORY  VIEWS  ON  PLATFORM  AGITATION  63 

minster  or  elsewhere.  In  Surrey  not  a  tenth  part  of 
those  who  are  styled  gentlemen  put  their  hands  to  the 
Petition." 

Mr.  Rigby,  a  member  for  a  nomination  borough, 
alarmed  evidently  at  the  first  symptom  of  a  political 
awakening  of  the  people,  exclaimed,  "  If  it  were  not  for 
petition-hunters  who  travel  from  north  to  south,  and 
from  east  to  west,  who  tell  them  that  there  are  griev- 
ances which  they  do  not  feel,  and  apprehensions  which 
they  do  not  conceive,  I  am  sure  the  name  of  a  Petition 
would  never  have  been  heard  in  more  than  three 
counties  throughout  the  kingdom.  If  it  were  not  for 
the  officious  diligence  of  these  incendiaries,  how  is  it 
possible,  that  the  farmers  and  weavers  in  Yorkshire,  and 
Cumberland,  should  know,  or  take  an  interest  in  the 
Middlesex  election  of  representatives  in  Parliament  ?  It 
is  impossible  that  of  themselves  they  could  ever  think 
even  of  asking  a  question  upon  the  subject ;  but  a  few 
factious  and  discontented  people,  who  have  no  way  of 
making  themselves  of  consequence  but  by  distressing 
Government,  go  round  the  country ;  meetings  are 
advertised,  speeches  made,  the  Parliament  abused, 
Government  vilified,  and  the  people  inflamed  ;  a  Petition 
ready  drawn  up  is  produced  and  read,  and  before  the 
ferment  subsides,  it  is  hawked  about  from  one  town  to 
another,  till  a  sufficient  number  of  names  are  collected 
to  make  a  show ;  and  then  it  is  passed  for  the  sense  and 
act  of  the  people.  To  pretend  that  any  attention  is 
due  to  Petitions  thus  fraudulently  obtained  is  an  insult 
upon  common  sense ;  but,"  continued  this  irate  member 
of  the  House,  who,  being  a  borough  owner  nominee,  felt 
himself  at  liberty  to  abuse  all  electors,  "supposing  that 
a  majority  of  freeholders  had  signed  these  Petitions 
without  influence  or  solicitation,  the  majority,  even  of 


64  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

"  this  class,  is  no  better  than  an  ignorant  multitude 
whom  it  is  absurd  in  the  highest  degree  to  suppose 
capable  of  deciding  upon  a  question,  about  which  the 
best  lawyers,  and  the  ablest  men  in  the  House  are  still 
divided.  Let  the  infamous  abettors  of  sedition  blush  at 
their  appeal  to  such  a  tribunal.  If  the  authority  of  the 
House  is  to  be  called  in  question  by  people  of  this  class, 
if  we  suffer  our  proceedings  to  be  controlled  and  directed 
by  popular  clamour,  excited  by  factious  invective  and 
misrepresentation,  we  must  bid  adieu  to  all  government 
by  law,  and  depend  for  protection  upon  the  caprice  of 
the  multitude." l 

But  the  speaking  was  not  to  be  all  on  one  side, 
and,  fortunately  for  the  liberties  of  Englishmen,  free 
speech,  though  much  hampered  out  of  doors,  was  still 
permitted  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Sir  G.  Savile, 
one  of  the  popular  members  for  Yorkshire,  braved  the 
Ministerial  henchmen.  "  I  do  not  say  that  the  vote  of 
expulsion,  which  was  the  beginning  of  sorrows,  was  the 
offspring  of  corruption ;  nor  do  I  say  that  the  majority 
of  this  House  sold  the  rights  of  their  constituents,  but 
I  do  say  it,  have  said  it,  and  will  always  say  it,  that 
they  have  betrayed  them.  .  .  .  The  people  are  not  such 
ignorant  dupes,  as  certain  wiseacres  would  represent 
them.  They  understand  their  own  rights,  and  know  their 
own  interests  as  well  as  we  do.  ...  I  again  say,  that 
this  House  has  betrayed  the  rights  of  its  constituents."2 

The  Marquis  of  Granby,  holding  the  %high  appoint- 
ment of  Commander -in -Chief,  referred  to  his  having 
voted  for  Colonel  Luttrell  being  given  the  seat,  and 
said,  "  That  he  should  always  lament  that  vote  which  he 
gave  as  the  greatest  misfortune  of  his  life." 

These  speeches  stung  the  Government  into  further 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xvi.  p.  698.  2  Ibid.  p.  699. 


CHAP,  ii        EDMUND  BURKE  ON  THE  AGITATION  65 

reply,  and  the  wrath  of  the  Cabinet,  and  the  indignation 
of  the  King,  blaze  forth  through  the  speech  of  his  most 
trusted  and  confidential  servant,  Lord  North,  member 
for  the  rotten  borough  of  Banbury,  not  quite  yet  Prime 
Minister,  but  soon  to  be.  He  said,  "  The  charge  of 
alienating  the  affections  of  the  people  from  their 
sovereign  must  come  with  a  very  ill  grace  from  the 
leaders  of  the  opposition,  who  are  incessantly  labouring 
to  persuade  them  that  he  does  not  deserve  their  affection, 
by  speeches  and  writings  beyond  all  example  virulent 
and  inflammatory ;  from  those  factious  spirits,  the  only 
genuine  malcontents  in  the  kingdom,  who  run  from 
place  to  place,  collect  a  crowd  together,  and  abuse  the 
credulous  people  by  abusing  alike  his  Majesty  and  his 
Ministers.1  If  his  Majesty's  subjects  are  disaffected, 
those  trumpeters  of  sedition  have  produced  the  dis- 
affection ;  and  it  is  nothing  more  than  the  effect  of  their 
artifices  that  they  retort  as  a  reproach  upon  administra- 
tion. .  .  .  The  servants  of  the  Crown  are  indeed 
threatened  with  the  fury  of  the  multitude,  and  the 
drunken  ragamuffins  of  a  vociferous  mob  are  exalted 
into  equal  importance  with  men  of  the  coolest  judgment, 
the  best  morals,  and  the  greatest  property  in  the 
kingdom.  .  .  . 

"It  is  the  glory  of  the  present  administration  that, 
as  they  make  no  encroachments  upon  the  rights  of  the 
people,  they  will  suffer  none  upon  the  power  of  the 
Legislature.  This  House  has  hitherto  possessed  the 
sole  power  of  judging  in  all  cases  respecting  the  rights 
of  electing  its  own  members ;  and  this  power,  as  it 
never  ought,  never  shall  be  given  up,  till  it  is  proved  to 
be  contrary  to  law ;  therefore  it  remains." 

Burke  followed. 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xvi.  p.  717. 


66  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

"He  (Lord  North)  has  told  us  that  the  people 
have  been  persuaded  there  are  grievances,  by  writing, 
meeting,  and  speaking ;  but  if  it  is  a  fault  to  persuade 
by  writing,  meeting,  and  speaking,  let  him  tell  us  what 
means  of  persuasion  more  eligible  he  has  discovered. 
Writing  and  meeting  and  speaking  about  grievances 
do  not  make  them." l  .  .  .  And  then  he  went  on  to 
defend  and  justify  the  action  of  those  who  had  taken 
the  lead  in  the  agitation. 

"  If  those  who  see  oppression  in  its  distant  though 
certain  approach,  if  those  who  see  the  subversion  of 
liberty  in  its  cause  are  always  few,  does  it  follow  that 
there  never  are  approaches  to  oppression,  or  remote 
causes  of  the  subversion  of  liberty  ?  If  the  few  who 
can,  and  do  discover  effects  in  their  causes  open  the 
eyes  of  others,  if  those  who  see  the  rights  of  election 
invaded  in  Middlesex,  acquaint  the  graziers  and  clothiers 
of  remote  counties  with  their  interest  in  the  event  and 
its  consequences,  are  they  for  that  reason  leaders  of  a 
faction,  actuated  by  personal  and  selfish  motives  ? "  .  .  . 
And  then  he  gave  a  description  or  rather  drew  up 
an  indictment  against  the  Ministers,  every  word  of 
which  was  true,  terrible  though  it  now  reads. 

"  Military  executions  have  been  wantonly  exercised 
and  wickedly  countenanced;  murders  have  been  abetted, 
and  murderers  protected,  encouraged,  and  rewarded ; 
public  money  has  been  shamefully  squandered ;  and  no 
account  given  of  millions  that  have  been  misapplied  to 
the  purposes  of  venality  and  corruption ;  obsolete  and 
vexatious  claims  of  the  Crown  have  been  revived,  with 
a  view  to  influence  the  elections  of  members  to  sit  in 
the  House;  the  majority  of  one  branch  of  the  Legislature 
have  arrogantly  assumed  the  power  of  the  whole,  and 

l.  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xvi.  p.  721. 


CHAP,  ii  LORD  NORTH  ON  THE  AGITATION  67 

daringly  superseded  the  law  of  the  land  by  their  resolu- 
tions ;  the  humble  petitions  of  the  people  to  their 
gracious  sovereign  refused  and  discountenanced."  The 
House  divided  on  the  proposed  amendment — 138 
voted  for  it,  and  254  against  it,  or  a  majority  for  the 
Government  of  116.  "Thus  ends  the  mighty  bluster 
of  petitions,"  *  wrote  Walpole.  Not  quite  yet  though, 
even  so  far  as  this  episode  was  concerned ;  only  just 
beginning,  so  far  as  petitioning  generally  was  concerned, 
and  all  that  was  now  becoming  associated  with  Petitions, 
namely,  public  meetings  and  Platformings. 

The  crucial  debate  over,  the  Government  struck 
hard  and  sharp.  The  Lord  Chancellor  was  dismissed, 
also  the  Marquis  of  Granby,  the  Commander  of  the 
Forces,  and  a  host  of  smaller  place-holders.  "  Every 
day  produced  some  new  ousting  or  resignation."2 

By  the  19th  January  1770  "the  Court  had 
recovered  from  its  consternation,  and  was  taking 
measures  of  defence."3 

Lord  North,  a  few  days  later,  expressed  in  plainer 
language  than  he  had  done  before  his  view  of  the 
agitation  and  of  the  Platform  orations,  which  were  still 
evidently  rankling  deep. 

"  What  evidence  have  we  that  there  are  public 
grievances  which  demand  an  inquiry  ?  That  a  number 
of  ignorant  mechanics  and  rustics  have  been  treated  in 
one  place  with  beer,  and  broke  windows  in  another,  is 
true ;  are  these  the  grievances  into  which  we  are  to 
inquire  ?  That  some  persons  whose  share  in  the  public 
interest  should  have  taught  better,  have  treated  these 
rustics  and  mechanics,  and  taught  them,  in  the  jollity 
of  their  drunkenness,  to  cry  out  that  they  were  undone, 

1  Horace  Walpole's  Letters,  vol.  v.  2  Weston      MSS.,      Parliamentary 

p.  214,  10th  January  1770.  Papers,  1885,  vol.  xliv. 

3  Walpole's  Letters,  vol.  v.  p.  217. 


68          THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

"  is  also  true.  Are  these,  then,  the  grievances  into  which 
we  are  to  inquire  ?  If  these  are  not,  I  know  of  none. 
The  nation  is  quiet  and  content,  except  where  tumult 
and  discontent  are  industriously  excited ;  and  shall  the 
annual  supply  be  withheld?  shall  every  purpose  of 
Government  be  suspended  ?  shall  the  public  creditors  be 
unpaid,  and  the  army  and  the  navy  want  clothes  and 
bread,  because  the  drunken  and  the  ignorant  have  been 
made  dupes  to  the  crafty  and  the  factious,  signed 
papers  that  they  have  never  read,  and  determined 
questions  that  they  do  not  know;  roared  against 
oppression  and  tyranny,  with  licentiousness  that  makes 
liberty  blush,  and  staggered  home  with  impunity, 
swearing  they  were  in  danger  of  slavery,  while  every 
one  they  met  who  did  not  join  in  their  cry  was  in 
danger  of  a  broken  head  ? " l 

In  a  fresh  debate  on  the  Middlesex  election 
question,2  the  Court  majority  suddenly  fell  to  44, 
and  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  the  Prime  Minister,  resigned 
(on  the  28th  January  1770).  "A  violent  panic  pre- 
vailed, the  whole  administration  seemed  falling  to 
pieces ; "  but  the  King  promoted  Lord  North  to  be 
Prime  Minister,  the  tide  turned,  and  affairs  began  once 
more  to  brighten  for  the  Court  party.  Walpole  wrote 
on  2d  February  :  "  The  very  critical  day  is  over,  and  the 
administration  stands.  .  .  .  The  people  are  perfectly 
quiet  and  seem  to  have  delegated  all  their  anger  to 
their  representatives — a  proof  that  their  representatives 
had  instructed  their  constituents  to  be  angry.  .  .  .  Yet 
I  am  far  from  thinking  the  administration  solidly  seated. 
When  they  could  reduce  a  majority  of  116  to  40  in 
three  weeks,  their  hold  seems  to  be  very  slippery."8 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xvi.          2  On  the  25th  January  1770. 
p.  759.  »  Walpole's  Letters,  vol.  v.  p.  225. 


CHAP,  ii       TEMPORARY  TRIUMPH  OF  GOVERNMENT  69 

That  the  leaders  of  the  popular  party  were  not  strong 
enough  to  cope  with  the  concentrated  power  of  the 
Court  at  this  time  was  manifest  at  first  sight.  In  the 
novel  position  in  which  they  were  placed,  mistakes  too 
on  their  side  were  to  be  expected.  Want  of  success  in 
the  repeated  divisions  in  the  House  of  Commons 
quickly  discouraged  them.  The  Platform  was  no  longer 
actively  backing  them,  or  where  it  attempted  to  do  so, 
it  was  foiled.  For  instance,  the  Common  Council  of 
London,  finding  their  petition  ineffectual,  held  a  meet- 
ing, which  was  attended  by  some  3000  persons,1  and 
framed  a  "  Remonstrance." 

"  To  a  Remonstrance  they  tell  us,"  wrote  Sedgwick, 
6th  February  1770,  "  an  answer  must  be  given.  If  not, 
force  and  arms  are  the  only  remedies.  May  heaven 
prevent  the  use  of  such  remedies."2  But  the  House  of 
Commons  by  284  votes  to  157  passed  a  vote  of  very 
strong  censure  on  the  Remonstrance.  That  was  all  that 
came  of  it.  Other  meetings  were  in  abeyance  while  the 
battle  was  being  waged  in  Parliament,  and  there  the 
battle  was  lost,  and  before  the  session  of  1770  was 
brought  to  a  close,  the  Government  of  Lord  North 
might  be  considered  as  firmly  established. 

But  though  the  Government  had  thus  triumphed,  and 
though  the  electors  of  Middlesex  were  for  a  time  denied 
the  right  of  choosing  their  own  representative,  the  Plat- 
form was  ultimately  the  victor.  Immediate  and  com- 
plete success,  though  vigorously  striven  for,  was  more 
than  could  be  expected.  The  battalions  of  subservient 
nominees  or  placemen  in  the  House  of  Commons  were 
overwhelmingly  numerous,  and  the  Government  was  in 
too  great  majority  to  be  vulnerably  assailable.  Nothing, 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xvi.  p.  2  Weston      MSS. ,      Parliamentary 

875.  Papers,  1885,  vol.  xliv.  p.  421. 


70  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

in  fact,  but  the  extreme  importance  of  the  subject  in 
dispute  could  have  brought  the  action  of  the  Platform  so 
near  success  at  the  time. 

The  view  some  people  took  of  the  contest  is 
amusingly  illustrated  by  Dr.  Johnson,  though  it  redounds 
little  to  his  political  sagacity.  With  contemptuous 
censure  he  thus  described  the  point  at  issue :  "  The 
struggle  in  the  reign  of  Anne  was  to  exclude  or  restore 
an  exiled  king.  We  are  now  disputing  with  almost 
equal  animosity  whether  Middlesex  shall  be  represented 
or  not  by  a  criminal  from  a  jail.  The  only  comfort  left 
in  such  degeneracy  is  that  a  lower  state  can  be  no 
longer  possible." 

But  Burke  put  the  matter  in  its  true  aspect  when 
he  said  :  "  The  people  did  not  think  of  approaching  the 
Throne  with  their  grievances  till  the  malversation  of 
Ministers  threatened  immediate  destruction  to  the  State. 
Till  the  sacred  right  of  election,  wrested  from  their 
hands,  filled  the  freeholders  of  Great  Britain  with 
universal  apprehension  for  their  liberties,  they  never 
disturbed  the  royal  repose  with  their  complaints.  But 
oppression  having  now  exceeded  all  bounds,  the  axe  being 
at  length  laid  at  the  very  root  of  the  subjects'  independ- 
ence, the  people  of  England  can  be  silent  no  longer." ] 

At  the  time,  the  Court,  the  Government,  and  the 
"  King's  friends  "  may  have  fancied  that  they  had  won 
a  permanent  victory.  Their  triumph,  however,  was 
short — the  mere  mirage  of  a  triumph — for  it  was  only 
during  that  Parliament  that  the  Government  was  able 
to  enforce  the  expulsion  of  Wilkes.  To  the  next 
Parliament,  which  was  elected  in  1774,  he  was  again 
returned  as  Member  for  Middlesex.  Taught  wisdom  by 
experience,  and  unwilling  to  stir  up  a  fresh  outburst  of 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xvi.  p.  879. 


CHAP,  ii         THE  CONDUCT  OF  THE  AGITATION  71 

Platform  agitation,  the  King  and  the  Government 
allowed  him  to  take  his  seat  in  the  new  House  of 
Commons  without  notice  or  opposition.  Thus,  in  1774, 
the  Platform  triumphed,  and  its  first  great  victory,  the 
prelude  of  many  others,  was  won. 

In  reviewing  this  first  resort  to  the  Platform,  as  an 
engine  of  political  warfare,  certain  facts  which  specially 
marked  it  should  be  recorded,  so  as  to  enable  us  here- 
after to  compare  it  with  subsequent  outbursts  of  Plat- 
form activity,  and  also  the  more  readily  to  understand 
the  different  stages  in  the  growth  or  evolution  of  the 
Platform.  The  first  fact  is  that  this  agitation,  greater 
than  any  which  preceded  it,  had  not  the  support  of  the 
bulk  of  what  were  then  considered  the  more  respectable 
classes  of  the  community.  Horace  Walpole  says  : l  "In 
fact  the  lower  people  alone,  whom  it  was  easy  to  lead, 
gave  in  to  Petitions.  The  gentry  in  general  discouraged, 
yet  dared  not  openly  oppose  them,  either  fearing  for 
their  future  elections  or  dreading  the  abuse  that  was 
cast  on  all  who  opposed  the  popular  cry." 

It  is  possibly  true,  as  was  stated,  that  the  Petitions 
were  signed  by  65,000  of  the  electors.  Having  regard 
to  the  political  ignorance  and  indifference  prevailing  at 
the  time,  and  the  state  of  dependence  in  which  large 
masses  of  the  people  were  kept,  this  was  a  very  large 
number,  but  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  many  counties 
and  towns  did  not  join  in  the  movement. 

Another  noteworthy  fact  is  that  the  agitation  was 
only  in  a  small  degree  the  spontaneous  uninspired 
agitation  of  the  people  ;  and  one  more  fact  to  be  noted 
is  that  the  agitation  was  taken,  as  it  were,  under  the 
protection  of  the  Whig  party  leaders,  and  the  endeavour 
was  made  to  give  it  a  distinctive  party  aspect. 

1  Memoirs  of  the  Reign  of  George  III.,  vol.  ii.  p.  393. 


72          THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

Lord  Chatham,  ex -Prime  Minister,  emerged  from 
retirement  and  flung  himself  into  the  front  of  the 
battle.  He  even  "  engaged  with  new  warmth  in  pro- 
moting petitions."1  Lord  Buckingham,  another  ex- 
Prime  Minister,  also,  as  we  have  seen,  took  an  active 
part  in  directing  the  objects  of  the  agitation.  Sir 
George  Savile  and  other  leading  men  of  the  Whig 
party  took  energetic  action. 

Edmund  Burke,  though  he  did  not  actually  speak  at 
any  meeting,  gave  his  fullest  strength  to  the  popular 
cause  of  his  wisest  counsel.  His  general  ideas  on  the 
subject  may  be  gathered  from  a  speech  of  his  in  the 
House  of  Commons  in  1771. 

"  I  am  not  of  the  opinion  of  those  gentlemen  who 
are  against  disturbing  the  public  repose.  I  like  a 
clamour  whenever  there  is  an  abuse.  The  fire-bell  at 
midnight  disturbs  your  sleep,  but  it  keeps  you  from 
being  burned  in  your  bed.  The  hue  and  cry  alarms 
the  county,  but  it  preserves  all  the  property  of  the 
province.  All  these  clamours  aim  at  redress.  But  a 
clamour  made  merely  for  the  purpose  of  rendering  the 
people  discontented  with  their  situation,  without  an 
endeavour  to  give  them  a  practical  remedy,  is  indeed 
one  of  the  worst  acts  of  sedition."2 

That  the  Middlesex  agitation  did  not  fall  within  the 
latter  category  is  evident  from  what  he  further  said  : 
"  Indeed,  in  the  situation  in  which  we  stand,  with  an 
immense  revenue,  an  enormous  debt,  mighty  establish- 
ments, Government  itself  a  great  banker  and  a  great 
merchant,  I  see  no  other  way  for  the  preservation  of  a 
decent  attention  to  public  interest  in  the  representatives, 
but  the  interposition  of  the  body  of  the  people  itself 

1  Memoirs  of  the  Reign  of  George  III.,          2  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xvii. 
vol.  iii.  p.  400.  p.  54. 


CHAP,  ii  THE  POWER  OF  THE  CROWN  73 

whenever  it  shall  appear,  by  some  flagrant  and  notorious 
act,  by  some  capital  innovation,  that  these  representatives 
are  going  to  overleap  the  fences  of  the  law,  and  to  intro- 
duce an  arbitrary  power."  "  Standards  for  judging  more 
systematically  upon  their  conduct  ought  to  be  settled  in 
the  meetings  of  counties  and  corporations." 

The  interposition  of  the  body  of  the  people  thus 
recommended,  with  their  Platform  and  their  resolutions, 
had,  even  so  far  as  it  had  gone,  proved  most  eminently 
disconcerting  to  the  King  and  those  in  authority.  Dis- 
concerting it  well  might  be,  for  the  Platform  was  a  new 
factor  in  the  political  life  of  the  country,  and  carried 
with  it  vast  potentialities  for  the  future.  Not  alone 
was  it  a  new  form  of  expression  of  public  opinion,  but 
it  was  actually  a  new  element  or  source  of  public  opinion, 
differing  quite  from  the  Press,  being  more  tangible,  and 
carrying  with  it  the  greater  weight  which  the  personal 
presence  of  numbers  gives  to  expressed  opinion. 

Henceforward  statesmen  would  have  to  reckon  with 
the  fact  that  their  policy  and  acts  might  be  publicly 
discussed  and  criticised  by  the  Platform  in  the  presence 
of  large  gatherings  of  the  people  ;  henceforth  they  would 
have  to  submit  to  a  new  form  of  criticism  and  of  inter- 
ference in  the  domain  of  Government  of  the  most  galling 
and  at  times  most  offensive  kind,  alarming  too  in  this, 
that  it  required  apparently  but  one  step  to  pass  from 
criticism  to  dictation. 

We  can  the  more  fully  realise  why  the  Court  was 
in  "consternation"  over  the  Petitions,  if  we  examine 
somewhat  more  closely  the  position  and  power  of  the 
Crown  at  this  time,  and  inasmuch  as  throughout  George 
III/s  reign  the  Crown  was  the  consistent  and  unceas- 
ing foe  of  the  Platform,  the  examination  is  the  more 
necessary. 


74  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

Briefly,  the  Crown  had  reached  a  position  of  un- 
paralleled power  in  the  Constitution.  Formerly  con- 
trolled by  the  House  of  Commons,  it  had  succeeded  in 
course  of  years  in  subverting  the  power  of  that  House 
and  ruling  through  it ;  and  George  III.  was  governed 
solely  by  one  desire — that  of  perpetually  increasing  the 
influence  and  power  of  the  Crown. 

"The  power  of  the  Crown,"  wrote  Burke  in  1770, 
"  almost  dead  and  rotten  as  Prerogative,  has  grown  up 
anew,  with  much  more  strength,  and  far  less  odium, 
under  the  name  of  Influence, — an  influence  which 
operated  without  noise  and  without  violence ;  an  influ- 
ence which  converted  the  very  antagonist,  into  the 
instrument,  of  power — which  contained  in  itself  a  per- 
petual principle  of  growth  and  renovation,  and  which 
the  distresses  and  prosperity  of  the  country  equally 
tended  to  augment,  was  an  admirable  substitute  for 
a  prerogative ;  that,  being  only  the  offspring  of  anti- 
quated prejudices,  had  moulded  into  its  original  stamina 
irresistible  principles  of  decay  and  dissolution."1 

Erskine's  opinion,  though  expressed  in  a  later  year 
(1797),  may  also  with  advantage  be  quoted.  He  said  : 
"  The  Revolution  of  1688  established  the  true  principle  of 
all  political  constitutions  in  maintaining  the  immutable 
right  of  the  people  to  correct  its  Government ;  but, 
unfortunately,  too  little  care  was  taken  to  guard  against 
abuses  in  the  Government  so  corrected.  .  .  .  The  mild  and 
seducing  dominion  of  influence  stole  upon  us,  bestowing 
a  greater  and  a  more  fatal  authority  than  ever  existed 
in  the  most  arbitrary  periods  of  the  Government.  The 
gradual  creation  of  a  mighty  revenue,  rising  up  amidst 
the  glory  and  prosperity  of  the  Empire,  undermined  in 
a  few  years  that  nicely-poised  Constitution  which  un- 

1  See  Thoughts  on  the  Cause  of  the  Present  Discontents. 


CHAP,  ii        THE  SUBSERVIENCY  OF  PARLIAMENT  75 

just  power,  though  exerted  for  centuries,  had  only 
served  to  strengthen  and  confirm.  The  Crown,  instead 
of  being  balanced  and  curbed  in  this  House,  has,  during 
the  greatest  part  of  this  century,  erected  its  standard 
within  these  walls,  and  thrown  the  privileges  of  the 
people  into  the  scale  of  the  prerogative  to  govern  the 
nation  at  pleasure  without  any  control  at  all.  So  far, 
indeed,  is  the  House  of  Commons  from  being  a  control 
upon  the  Crown,  that  it  is  the  great  engine  of  its 
power." l  Authoritative  opinions,  such  as  these,  carry 
almost  conclusive  weight  with  them  ;  but  if  anything 
were  wanted  to  sustain  them,  it  would  be  found  in  the 
correspondence  of  the  King  with  his  Prime  Minister, 
Lord  North,  where,  time  after  time,  and  in  the  most 
important  matters  of  Government  and  State  policy,  we 
find  the  Sovereign  dictating  specifically  to  his  Ministers 
the  course  he  desired  to  be  taken,  the  Ministers  passing 
on  the  order  to  their  subservient  followers  or  dependents 
in  Parliament,  and  an  obedient  majority  there  readily 
doing  as  they  were  told.  Why  the  majority  submitted 
is  explained  by  Burke  in  one  of  his  speeches  at  this 
period :  "  I  see  very  few  on  the  side  of  the  present 
Administration  except  those  that  are  attached  by  golden 
hooks,  and  they  indeed  inquire  nothing  more  concern- 
ing any  question,  but  what  are  the  commands  of  the 
day." 2 

The  House  of  Commons  had,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
ceased  to  be  a  control  on  the  Crown  for  the  people,  and 
had  become  a  control  on  the  people,  acting  in  opposition 
to  their  interests  when  those  clashed  with  the  interests 
of  the  Crown  ;  and  so  many  of  its  members  found  this  so 
satisfactory  and  remunerative  that  the  House  was  per- 
fectly happy  in  its  new  position,  perfectly  willing  to 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxxiii.  p.  654.       2  Ibid.  vol.  xvi.  p.  762. 


76  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  I 

remain  in  it,  vehemently  opposed  to  the  slightest  change 
which  threatened  in  any  way  to  curtail  its  privileges  or 
make  it  more  dependent  on,  or  more  responsible  to,  the 
people.  It  was  this  feeling  of  hostility  to  popular 
co-operation  which  led  to  an  event  which  had  a  vast 
indirect  influence  on  the  Platform,  namely,  the  pub- 
lication of  the  debates  of  Parliament. 

The  King  and  the  House  of  Commons,  whilst  still  in 
grips  with  Wilkes,  came  into  conflict  with  the  Press.1 
By  a  long  and  well-known  order  of  the  Commons,  it  was 
"  highly  criminal "  in  any  printer  to  publish  an  account 
of  the  debates  without  the  particular  permission  of  the 
Speaker,  and  until  this  time  such  reports  as  were  pub- 
lished in  the  newspapers  were  very  limited  in  extent, 
and  given  in  a  very  guarded  style.  But  with  the 
awakening  of  political  life,  and  with  the  growing 
thirst  for  political  information,  greater  freedom  was 
gradually  and  tentatively  exercised  by  the  Press. 
The  practice  remained  unnoticed  by  Parliament  until, 
on  one  occasion,  some  speeches  were  published  in  such  a 
manner  as  led  to  a  complaint  being  made  in  the  House 
of  Commons  on  the  subject.  Then  the  whole  subject 
came  up  for  discussion,  and  a  bitter  struggle  ensued 
between  Parliament  and  the  Press.  It  was  quite  in 
keeping  with  the  autocratic  ideas  of  the  time,  that 
efforts  should  be  made  to  prevent  the  public  knowing 
what  passed  in  the  House  of  Commons.  The  King, 
though  "  in  the  strongest  manner  recommending  that 
every  caution  might  be  used  to  prevent  the  affair  of  the 
printers  becoming  serious,"  did  the  very  thing  himself 
to  make  it  serious.  He  wrote  to  Lord  North :  "  It  is 
highly  necessary  that  this  strange  and  lawless  method 
of  publishing  debates  in  the  papers  should  be  put  a 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xvii.  p.  58. 


CHAP,  ii     PUBLICATION  OF  PARLIAMENTARY  DEBATES     77 

stop  to ;  but  is  not  the  House  of  Lords,  as  a  Court  of 
Kecord,  the  best  Court  to  bring  such  miscreants  before  ? 
as  it  can  fine,  as  well  as  imprison,  and  as  the  Lords  have 
broader  shoulders  to  support  any  odium  that  this  salu- 
tary measure  may  occasion  in  the  minds  of  the  vulgar."1 

Lord  North  endeavoured  to  give  effect  to  the  King's 
wishes  as  regards  "  putting  a  stop  to  the  lawless  method 
of  publishing  debates  "  ;  and  vehement  and  prolonged 
debates  took  place  on  the  subject  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. The  quarrel  with  the  Press  merged  into  a 
quarrel  with  the  most  powerful  and  popular  Corporation 
then  existing,  the  city  of  London,  and  war  raged 
between  it  and  Parliament  on  the  subject.  Printers 
were  ordered  to  prison  by  the  House  of  Commons,  but 
the  city  magistrates  bailed  them  out.  The  House 
of  Commons  messengers  sent  to  arrest  the  printers 
were  themselves  arrested  by  the  city  officers.  At  last 
the  House  took  the  extreme  step  of  committing  the 
Lord  Mayor  of  London  and  one  alderman  to  the  Tower, 
though  it  did  not  dare  to  touch  Wilkes — who  had  been 
a  co-sinner  with  them  in  defying  the  House,  and  in  de- 
feating its  action — he  being  deemed  too  dangerous  to 
meddle  with.  "  He  is  to  do  what  he  pleases ;  we  are  to 
submit.  So  his  Majesty  ordered  ;  he  will  have  nothing 
more  to  do  with  '  that  devil  Wilkes.' ' 

But  here,  when  the  battle  had  reached  its  most 
interesting  phase,  the  efforts  of  the  power  of  the  House 
of  Commons  suddenly  ended ;  further,  apparently, 
Ministers  were  not  able  to  go ;  and  when  Parliament 
was  prorogued,  and  the  session  came  to  an  end,  the 
imprisonment  of  the  Lord  Mayor  and  the  alderman 
also  came  to  an  end,  and  on  their  release  they  were 

1  Correspondence  between  George  III-          2  Correspondence  of    William    Pitt, 
and  Lord  North,  vol.  i.  p.  57.  Earl  of  Chatham,  vol.  iv.  p.  123. 


78  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

received  by  the  populace  of  London  with  a  frenzy  of 
acclamation  and  approbation.  It  was  soon  made  evident, 
and,  indeed,  proved  even  to  the  House  of  Commons 
itself,  that  there  was  no  power  to  check  the  Press ;  no 
means  of  preventing  the  publication  of  the  debates. 
Editors,  accordingly,  from  that  time  forward,  began  to 
give  the  debates  at  length,  and  though  the  practice  was 
never  actually  recognised  by  Parliament,  it  has  never 
been  interrupted,  nor  any  curtailment  of  the  freedom  of 
publishing  the  proceedings  of  Parliament  attempted. 

The  resistance  to  the  practice  showed  clearly  how 
determined  the  King  and  Parliament  were  to  stick  to 
the  power  they  possessed,  and  to  exclude  any  participa- 
tion therein  by  the  people ;  and  from  their  point  of 
view  it  was  quite  natural  they  should  resist  it,  for  it 
would  be  difficult  to  overrate  the  effect  which  the 
publication  of  the  debates  in  Parliament  had  on  the 
political  education  of  the  people.  It  was  practically 
their  initiation  into  the  affairs  of  State. 

Their  attention  was  directed  to  their  political  rights 
and  interests ;  the  freedom  of  speech  which  happily 
existed  in  Parliament  was  an  incentive  to  them  to 
maintain  freedom  of  speech  outside  Parliament ;  the 
discussions  in  Parliament  suggested  discussions  outside  ; 
and  the  arguments  used  by  the  Legislature  afforded 
material  for  thought,  and  taught  and  enlightened  the 
people.  It  gradually  instructed  them  in  the  art  of 
political  discussion,  and  gave  a  turn  to  the  national 
character  in  the  direction  of  discussion  which,  happily 
for  the  peace  of  the  kingdom,  has  been  the  most  valuable 
preventive  of  violence  and  disorder.  From  this  time, 
moreover,  the  connection  between  a  member  and  his 
constituents  entered  on  a  new  phase.  The  latter  ac- 
quired the  means  of  judging  of  the  conduct  and  services 


CHAP,  ii     THE  TORY  THEORY  OF  REPRESENTATION  79 

of  their  representatives  with  more  accuracy  than  they 
were  able  to  do  before,  and  the  representatives  were 
forced  to  accord  greater  respect  to  the  claims  of  their 
constituents  by  knowing  that  they  were  indirectly  heard 
by  them. 

It  appears,  I  think,  clear  from  the  foregoing  state- 
ment of  facts,  and  from  the  speeches  and  opinions 
which  have  been  quoted,  that  the  one  predominating 
idea,  in  the  minds  of  the  King,  of  the  Ministers,  and  of 
the  vast  majority  of  both  Houses  of  Parliament,  was 
that  the  government  of  the  country  should  be  carried 
on  with  as  little  regard  as  possible  to  any  popular 
control  or  advice,  that  fight  as  they  might  among 
themselves  for  their  respective  shares  of  power  and 
plunder,  still  that  the  province  of  government  was 
theirs,  belonged  entirely  to  them.  Over  and  over  again 
do  we  see  this  guiding  principle  running  clearly  through 
all  their  actions ;  over  and  over  again  is  it  avowed  by 
the  King,  by  the  Lords,  and  even  by  the  Commons. 
At  this  period  we  find  the  King  bursting  forth : 
"Though  I  am  not  conscious  of  having  much  gall  in 
my  composition,  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  the 
uniform  conduct  of  this  disjointed  opposition  is  a 
medley  of  absurdities  which  tends  to  nothing  less  than 
encouraging  a  contempt  of  the  laws,  and  of  that  subor- 
dination that  alone  can  preserve  liberty,  of  which  they 
pretend  to  be  guardians." 1  And  time  after  time  this 
predominating  idea  breaks  out  in  the  debates  in  both 
Houses.  All  other  ideas  of  policy  or  administration 
were  subsidiary  to  it. 

Hence  the  indignant  astonishment  in  the  Wilkes 
case,  hence  the  bitter  struggle  to  prevent  the  public 
being  even  so  much  as  permitted  to  know  what  was 

1  Correspondence  between  George  111.  and  Lord  North,  vol.  i.  p.  71. 


8o          THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

spoken  within  the  hallowed  precincts  of  the  temple  of 
Government.     Ingenious  theories  of  the  most  far-reach- 
ing character  in  support  of  this  idea  were  formulated 
and   palmed   off   as   fundamental   indisputable   truths. 
The   most  extreme   and  exaggerated  construction  was 
put  on  the  idea  of  representative  government.    Members 
of  Parliament  claimed  that,  being  representatives,  they 
were  completely  independent ;  that  in  electing  them,  the 
electors  divested  themselves  of  all  power  for  the  life  of 
the  Parliament,  and  bestowed  it  on  them,  their  repre- 
sentatives ;  and  therefore  that  the  electors  had  no  right 
to  interfere  in  any  way  in  the  affairs  of  Parliament,  no 
matter  what  policy  Parliament  pursued,  what  measures 
it  adopted.     This  theory  comes  with  the  most  exquisite 
felicity  and  effrontery  from  Members  of  Parliament  for 
rotten  boroughs,  who  represented  nobody  except  them- 
selves, or   their   patron.     One   member,   Mr.   Welbore 
Ellis,  thus  enunciated  this  theory.     He  said  : l     "  This 
House,    in    its    legislative    capacity,    constitutes    the 
only  people  of  England  which  the  law  acknowledges. 
On  the  expiration  of  our  term  indeed,  or  our  dissolution 
by  the  royal  proclamation,   our  power  reverts  to  the 
hands  of  our  constituents,  and  the  moment  they  elect 
new  representatives,  these  representatives,  and  not  the 
constituents,  again  become  the  legal  body  of  the  people. 
To  imagine  any  other  people,  either  in  a  judicial  or  an 
argumentative  sense,  is  to  lay  the  political  axe  immedi- 
ately at  the  root  of  our  Constitution.     It  is  to  substitute 
anarchy  in  the  room  of  order.  ...  As  we  are  therefore 
the  people  of  England,  sir,  nothing  is  more  absurd  than 
to  say  we  are  trampling  upon  the  rights  of  the  nation, 
when  we  are  merely  supporting  our  own  constitutional 
claims,  and  exercising  those  powers  which  have  been 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xvii.  p.  125. 


CHAP,  ii         THE  REMEDY  FOR  MISGOVERNMENT  81 

immemorially  allowed   us  for   the  most  salutary  pur- 
poses." 

Another  speaker  said:  "  The  people  of  England,  con- 
sidered either  as  a  legislative  or  a  judicative  body,  have  no 
existence  but  within  the  walls  of  this  House.  .  .  .  The 
name  House  of  Commons  is  misunderstood.  Instead 
therefore  of  giving  this  assembly  an  ambiguous  appella- 
tion I  shall  call  it  the  people  of  England." 

Other  members  for  rotten  boroughs  joined  in  the 
chorus,  and  claimed  that  if  they  did  not  represent  a 
numerous  electorate  they  represented  England.  In 
every  possible  way  this  theory  of  government  was 
sought  to  be  maintained. 

But  now  new  forces  were  rising  to  combat  it.  The 
population  of  the  country  was  growing,  and  the  growing 
population  were  beginning  to  develop  intellectual  and 
political  wants.  The  Press,  which  was  increasing  in 
strength  and  power,  was  readiest  to  hand,  and  was 
adopted ;  and  now  the  Platform  had  been  almost  in- 
vented, and  had  been  applied  to  politics  with  startling 
and  most  encouraging  effect. 

The  Wilkes  case  had  disclosed  a  triple  alliance  of 
King,  Lords,  and  Commons,  bound  together  by  the 
common  interests  of  ambition,  power,  place,  and  greed, 
in  opposition  to  the  rightful  claims  of  the  people.  And 
it  brought  home  to  the  popular  party  in  the  country 
the  great  fact,  never  after  lost  sight  of,  that  the  abuses 
of  Government  could  only  be  removed,  the  grievances 
under  which  the  people  laboured  could  only  be  allevi- 
ated, and  the  Augean  stable  of  corruption  and  despotism 
be  alone  cleansed,  by  bringing  the  House  of  Commons 
into  unison  with  the  feelings  and  interests  of  the  people, 
and  making  it  dependent  upon  the  people  themselves 
for  its  existence,  its  powers,  and  its  privileges.  Nor 


82  THE  PLA1FORM:    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PARTI 

were  the  people  in  want  of  leaders  to  point  out  these 
lessons  to  them.  He  who  had  been  their  favourite 
Minister,  their  idol  for  years,  was  once  more  giving 
them  the  lead.1 

"  I  need  not  look  abroad  for  grievances,"  said  Lord 
Chatham  ;  "  the  grand  capital  mischief  is  fixed  at  home. 
It  corrupts  the  very  foundation  of  our  political  exist- 
ence, and  preys  on  the  vitals  of  the  State.  The  Con- 
stitution has  been  grossly  violated.  ...  If  the  breach 
in  the  Constitution  be  effectually  repaired,  the  people 
will  of  themselves  return  to  a  state  of  tranquillity.  If 
not,  may  discord  prevail  for  ever !  .  .  . 

"  Rather  than  the  nation  should  surrender  their 
birthright  to  a  despotic  minister,  I  hope,  my  Lords,  old 
as  I  am,  I  shall  see  the  question  brought  to  issue  and 
fairly  tried  between  the  people  and  the  Government. 
...  I  have  been  bred  up  in  the  principles  of  the 
English  Constitution,  and  know  that  when  the  liberty  of 
the  subject  is  invaded,  and  all  redress  denied  him,  resist- 
ance is  justified."  And  then,  after  inveighing  against 
the  corruption  of  the  people  themselves,  as  "  the  great 
original  cause  of  their  discontents,  of  the  enterprise  of 
the  Crown,  and  the  notorious  decay  of  the  internal 
vigour  of  the  Constitution,"  ...  he  passed  on  to  the 
necessity  of  reforming  the  House  of  Commons. 

"  The  Constitution  intended  that  there  should  be  a 
permanent  relation  between  the  constituent  and  the 
representative  body  of  the  people.2  Will  any  man  affirm 
that,  as  the  House  of  Commons  is  now  formed,  that 
relation  is  in  any  degree  preserved  ?  My  Lords,  it  is 
not  preserved ;  it  is  destroyed.  .  .  .  The  boroughs  of 
this  country  have  properly  enough  been  called  the 
rotten  parts  of  the  Constitution.  But  corrupt  as  they 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xvi.  p.  747.  2  Ibid.  p.  753. 


CHAP,  ii  PARLIAMENTARY  REFORM  83 

are,  they  must  be  considered  as  the  natural  infirmity  of 
the  Constitution.  The  limb  is  mortified,  but  ampu- 
tation might  be  death.  Let  us  then  endeavour  to 
infuse  such  a  portion  of  new  health  into  the  Constitu- 
tion as  may  enable  it  to  support  its  most  inveterate 
diseases.  .  .  . 

"The  representation  of  the  counties  is,  I  think,  still 
preserved  pure  and  uncorrupted.  That  of  the  great 
cities  is  on  a  footing  equally  respectable ;  and  there  are 
many  of  the  larger  trading  towns  which  still  preserve 
their  independence.  The  infusion  of  health  which  I 
now  allude  to,  would  be  to  permit  every  county  to  elect 
one  member  more,  in  addition  to  the  present  representa- 
tion. ...  It  is  not  in  the  little  dependent  boroughs,  it 
is  in  the  great  cities  and  counties  that  the  strength  and 
vigour  of  the  Constitution  resides,  and  by  them  alone,  if 
an  unhappy  question  should  ever  arise,  will  the  Consti- 
tution be  honestly  and  firmly  defended." 

And  soon  after,  in  replying  to  an  address  of  thanks 
which  was  presented  to  him  by  the  city  of  London  for 
his  Parliamentary  conduct  during  the  session,  he  again 
impressed  the  necessity  of  reform  :  "  Purity  of  Parlia- 
ment is  the  corner-stone  of  the  commonwealth ;  and 
as  one  obvious  means  towards  this  necessary  end,  and  to 
strengthen  and  extend  the  natural  relation  between  the 
constituent  and  the  elected,  I  have  already  expressed 
my  earnest  wishes  for  a  more  full  and  equal  representa- 
tion by  the  addition  of  one  knight  of  the  shire  in  the 
county  as  a  further  balance  to  the  mercenary  boroughs." 

Sixty  years  and  more  were  to  pass  before  the  reform 
of  Parliament  was  carried  ;  but  from  the  time  Lord 
Chatham  delivered  these  opinions  until  the  first  great 
Reform  Act  was  enrolled  in  the  statutes  of  the  realm, 
the  reform  of  Parliament,  or  to  speak  more  accurately, 


84  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

such  an  extension  and  arrangement  of  the  suffrage  as 
would  lead  to  the  actual,  instead  of  the  nominal,  repre- 
sentation of  the  people,  was  the  object  for  which,  above 
all  others,  the  Platform  strove. 

In  recording  the  first  great  genuine  Platform  agita- 
tion mention  must  also  be  made  of  practically  the  first 
attempt  at  organisation  for  political  purposes. 

Just  at  the  very  time  that  the  Platform  was  forcing 
itself  into  prominence,  and  taking  up  its  position  as 
an  engine  of  political  power,  the  idea  of  political 
Associations  or  Societies,  which  were  destined  to  be 
the  principal  source  of  strength  to  the  Platform,  was 
originated. 

Those  who  were  in  opposition  to  the  Government, 
and  who  were  aspiring  to  obtain  some  influence  in  the 
conduct  of  the  affairs  of  the  country,  felt  the  necessity 
of  some  form  of  organisation  to  enable  them  to  make 
any  head  against  the  organised  power  of  the  Govern- 
ment. "  This,"  says  Mr.  Stephens  in  his  life  of  John 
Horne-Tooke,  "  was  deemed  a  favourable  conjuncture, 
therefore,  to  organise  a  new  as  well  as  formidable  species 
of  opposition,  and,  by  means  of  political  associations,  to 
concentrate  the  hitherto  unheeded  resentments  and 
influence  of  a  number  of  scattered  individuals  into  one 
formidable  mass,  which,  without  either  the  forms  or 
restraints  of  a  body  politic,  should  produce  all  the 
spirit,  zeal,  and  effect  of  a  great  corporation." l  A 
multitude  of  associations  of  different  kinds  were  created 
in  London,  denominated  generally  after  the  place  they 
met  in,  such  as  "  The  Standard  Tavern,"  or  designated 
by  the  views  of  the  leading  members,  like  the  "  Anti- 
gallicans."  These  being  generally  more  numerous  than 

1  See  Memoirs  of  John  Horne-Tooke,  by  Alexander  Stephens  (London,  1813), 
vol.  i.  p.  161. 


CHAP,  ii  POLITICAL  ASSOCIATIONS  85 

respectable,  it  was  at  length  determined  in  1769  to 
form  one,  which  should  have  for  its  main  object  the 
preservation  of  the  Constitution,  as  it  had  been  estab- 
lished at  the  Revolution,  and  it  assumed  the  name  of 
"  The  Society  for  supporting  the  Bill  of  Rights." 
Wilkes,  and  four  other  Members  of  Parliament,  and  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Horne-Tooke,  and  others,  were  members. 
"  The  members  were  few  at  first,  but  respectable  both 
for  wealth  and  talents.  Their  meetings,  their  speeches, 
their  resolutions,  were  attended  with  powerful  effects. 
They  inflamed  the  zeal  of  each  other,  they  inspired  the 
public  mind  with  energy,  vigour,  and  resentment." 
But  like  many  societies  they  attempted  more  than  they 
were  able  to  accomplish,  passing  rapidly  from  possibilities 
to  absurdities.  They  drew  up  instructions  to  be  used 
as  a  test  to  all  candidates  before  election  to  serve  in 
Parliament,  as  if  they  had  power  to  impose  terms  even 
on  a  single  constituency.  They  quarrelled  amongst 
themselves.  Gradually  the  Society  narrowed  itself  into 
a  committee,  and  at  last  disappeared,  having  done  its 
work  in  this,  that  it  gave  an  example  of  organisation 
for  a  common  end  by  individuals  sharing  similar 
opinions,  and  set  a  precedent  for  rendering  the  ex- 
pression of  those  opinions  more  effectual. 

That,  after  all  the  agitation,  the  Middlesex  election 
case  would  exercise  some  influence  at  the  General 
Election  when  it  came,  might  have  been  expected,  but 
the  excitement  of  1769  and  1770  had  been  followed  by 
depression,  and  other  more  absorbing  matters  were 
throwing  dark  shadows  across  the  political  sky,  and 
diverting  attention  from  home  politics.  Moreover,  the 
time  for  the  dissolution  was  specially  selected  by  the 
Government  with  the  view  of  obviating  any  such  result. 
The  struggle  with  the  American  colonies  had  begun, 


86          THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

and  the  King  dissolved  Parliament  somewhat  prema- 
turely, without  waiting,  as  was  then  usual,  for  it  to 
come  to  its  natural  end.  "  I  advised  the  dissolution," 
said  Lord  North,  "  lest  popular  dissatisfaction,  arising 
from  untoward  events,  should  break  the  chain  of  those 
public  measures  necessary  to  reduce  the  colonies  to 
obedience." l 

The  General  Election,  or  as  Dr.  Johnson  called  such 
an  event,  "the  Saturnalian  season,  when  the  freemen 
of  Great  Britain  may  please  themselves  with  the  choice 
of  their  representatives,"  took  place  in  1774. 

A  grimly  amusing  letter  in  The  Gentleman's 
Magazine  of  September  of  that  year  gives  a  descrip- 
tion of  some  of  the  candidates.  The  writer  said  :  "  In 
the  list  of  such  who  describe  themselves  '  proper 
persons '  to  be  in  the  ensuing  Parliament,  I  find 
'  nabobs '  who  have  amassed  immense  fortunes  by 
plunder,  murder,  and  infidelity  to  their  masters,  and 
who  now,  by  corrupting  the  electors,  and  destroying 
old  family  interests  are  become  '  proper  persons,'  etc.  : 
West  Indians ;  noblemen's  stewards,  who  (murder 
excepted)  answer  the  above  description  of  nabobs ; 
commissaries  who  have  already  robbed  the  public  of 
a  little  matter  which  now,  as  they  give  us  to  under- 
stand, enables  them  to  live  honest ;  stockjobbers  and 
agents  who,  during  the  war,  have,  by  the  ruin  of  many, 
enriched  themselves,  and  a  few  men  in  power,  who  let  them 
into  the  secret  very  kindly  and  honestly ;  lawyers,  like 
Swiss,  who  will  fight  for  pay ;  Scotchmen,  determined 
to  make  their  fortunes  by  being  'proper  persons'  for 
English  boroughs  and  Englishwomen ;  Irishmen,  ditto, 
but  greatly  outdone  by  their  competitors  above  men- 
tioned ;  gamblers,  for  the  credit  of  being  in  Parliament, 

1  Correspondence  between  George  III.  and  Lord  North,  vol.  i.  p.  219. 


CHAP,  ii  THE  GENERAL  ELECTION  OF  1774  87 

and  the  means  of  getting  into  company,  and  preventing 
their  being  arrested  for  fraud  and  debt." 

The  elections  were  carried  on  with  much  warmth 
and  excitement,  though  there  were  only  47  contests 
in  England  and  Wales  as  against  58  in  1768  ;  only  5 
counties  being  contested  as  against  8  at  the  previous 
election.  In  one  of  the  counties,  however,  namely  in 
Sussex,  an  example  was  afforded  of  a  constituency 
punishing  one  of  their  members  by  unseating  him. 

"  The  independent  part  of  the  county,"  says  Oldfield,1 
"  being  at  that  time  much  dissatisfied  with  the  conduct 
of  the  administration  in  attempting  to  procure  the 
return  of  a  candidate  of  their  own  nomination,  contrary 
to  the  wishes  of  the  people,"  unseated  one  member  whose 
vote  they  did  not  approve,  and  returned  another  in  his 
place.  The  contest  lasted  twenty-four  days,  and  3912 
freeholders  polled.  The  example  is  interesting  as  show- 
ing that,  even  at  this  time,  the  principle  of  responsi- 
bility on  the  part  of  a  representative  could  be  enforced 
by  the  electors  in  a  very  practical  way.  There  was, 
however,  but  seldom  such  an  opportunity  of  marking- 
disapproval  ;  seldom  also  the  power.  To  increase  these 
opportunities,  and  to  secure  the  power  was  part  of  the 
work  which  lay  before  the  Platform. 

"  Upon  the  whole,"  wrote  Lord  Stanhope,  in  his 
History,  "  we  hear  much  less  of  venality  at  this  general 
election  than  in  the  preceding  one.  In  most  of  the 
populous  places  where  the  public  feeling  could  be 
shown,  it  was  shown  clearly  and  beyond  dispute  on  the 
side  of  the  Ministers." 2  .  .  . 

He  goes  on  to  give  the  explanation  of  this  result : 
"  The  common  sentiment  was  that  the  Government 

1  Oldfield's    Representative   History,          2  History  of  England,  by  Lord  Stan- 
vol.  v.  p.  3.  hope,  vol.  vi.  p.  27. 


88          THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

"  during  the  last  few  years  had  been  justly  provoked 
by  the  misconduct  of  Massachussetts,  and  the  other 
New  England  provinces ;  that  conciliation  had  been 
tried  and  had  failed,  that  at  all  hazards  the  refractory 
and  rebellious  spirit  of  that  country  must  be  quelled. 
.  .  .  The  result  of  these  elections  therefore  was  not 
only  to  confirm,  but  to  increase  the  general  majority 
of  Ministers." 

The  King  expressed  his  gratification  to  Lord  North  : 
"I  am  much  pleased,"  he  wrote,  "at  the  state  of  the 
supposed  numbers  in  the  new  Parliament ;  "l  and,  indeed, 
he  had  good  reason  to  be,  for  when  Parliament  met, 
the  Opposition  could  muster  only  13  votes  in  the 
Upper  House,  and  73  in  the  Lower.  But  though  the 
Court  candidates  not  only  prevailed  in  the  counties 
and  small  boroughs,  and  were  triumphant  in  the  city 
of  Westminster,  and  though  the  Ministerial  majority 
was  actually  increased,  the  new  House  of  Commons, 
when  it  assembled,  gave,  as  has  been  already  stated, 
a  tacit  permission  to  Wilkes's  re-election,  by  allowing 
him  to  take  his  seat  without  further  opposition — and 
the  first  great  victory  of  the  Platform  was  won. 

1  Correspondence  between  George  III.  and  Lord  North,  vol.  i.  p.  214. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   ECONOMY   AGITATION 

TEN  years  were  to  elapse  after  the  Middlesex  election 
agitation  before  another  outburst  of  Platform  activity 
took  place,  but  before  proceeding  to  an  account  of  that 
agitation,  certain  other  interesting  matters  bearing  on 
the  Platform,  and  forming  part  of  its  history,  claim 
attention. 

The  Platform,  as  familiar  to  us  now,  presents  itself 
in  several  phases.  At  this  early  stage  of  its  history  it 
will  suffice  to  draw  attention  to  two — that  in  which  it 
was  used  by  the  people  for  the  expression  of  their 
feelings  and  their  opinions,  and  which  may  be  called  its 
expressive  function,  and  that  in  which  it  was  used  by 
political  leaders  as  the  means  of  instructing  or  com- 
municating with  the  people,  and  which  may  be  called 
its  didactic  function.  And  though  these  two  different 
phases  or  functions  often  overlap  and  run  into  each 
other,  still  they  are  generally  sufficiently  distinct  to  be 
easily  recognisable. 

There  is,  at  this  stage  of  the  subject,  little  to  be  said 
as  regards  the  didactic  phase.  The  Platform  during 
the  anti-cider  tax  agitation  had  been  used  for  the 
purpose  of  expression.  Again,  during  the  Middlesex 
election  agitation  it  had  been  mainly  used  for  a  similar 


90  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

purpose.  Never,  up  to  this,  at  least  so  far  as  I  have 
discovered,  had  the  Platform  been  used  for  a  didactic 
purpose,  except,  in  a  very  humble  sort  of  way,  by  a  few 
of  the  rank  and  file  of  members  of  Parliament.  Never, 
up  to  this,  had  a  member  of  the  Government  come 
before  a  public  political  meeting  to  expound  to  the 
people  his  policy  or  to  win  their  support  for  it.  As 
Government  was  carried  on  in  those  days,  there  was  no 
such  thing  as  members  of  the  Government  expounding 
party  issues,  or  explaining  a  policy  to  the  electors  even 
at  election  time.  Even  the  leaders  of  the  opposition 
did  not  do  so.  That  all  came  much  later ;  and  as 
regards  Platform  speeches  at  elections,  the  members  of 
the  Government  who  were  in  the  House  of  Commons 
having  the  choice  of  a  very  large  number  of  rotten 
borough  seats  invariably  selected  places  where  the 
represented,  if  there  were  any  at  all,  were  few  in  number, 
and  where  they  were  content  with  other  appeals  than 
those  of  speech.  A  general  election  was  the  only 
occasion  when  the  electors  had  any  expectation  of  being- 
addressed  by  their  representatives,  and  the  number  of 
constituencies  where  this  expectation  existed  was  limited. 
Personal  canvassing  was  more  the  custom  than  Platform 
addresses,  and  in  many  constituencies  the  electors  had 
never  heard,  in  some  had  never  seen,  their  representa- 
tives. Speeches  from  their  members  in  the  long  interval 
between  the  beginning  and  end  of  the  septennial  period 
were  unknown.  With  the  increasing  culture  and  in- 
telligence of  the  people,  however,  and  the  growing 
interest  in  the  political  affairs  of  the  nation,  greater 
importance  became  attached  to  the  proceedings  of 
Parliamentary  elections,  and  to  what  wTas  said  thereat. 
But  of  how  little  consequence  the  Platform  at  elections 
was  deemed,  may  be  judged  from  the  fact,  that  up  to 


CHAP,  in  THE  PLATFORM  AT  ELECTIONS  91 

the  General  Election  of  1774,  there  is,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  Alderman  Beckford's  speech  already  quoted,  and 
some  speeches  made  in  the  metropolitan  constituencies, 
scarcely  a  single  tolerably  full  report  of  an  election 
speech,  or  even  a  summary  of  such  a  speech,  to  be  found 
in  the  newspapers  of  the  time.  Doubtless,  in  some 
places,  speeches  were  made,  that  is  evident  enough,  but 
presumably  they  were  not  of  sufficient  importance  or 
influence  to  be  worth  recording. 

At  the  General  Election  of  1774,  however,  there  was 
a  most  notable  and  memorable  exception  to  this  state  of 
things,  and  we  have  what  may  be  regarded  as  the  first 
instance  of  a  great  orator  and  statesman  using  the 
Platform  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  himself  into 
frank  and  unreserved  communication  with  the  people. 
Edmund  Burke  was  the  inaugurator  of  the  change,  and 
the  occasion  was  his  contest  for  the  representation  of 
Bristol.  History  hands  us  down  a  picture  of  the  event. 
He  had  just  been  returned  as  member  for  Malton  when 
he  received  the  invitation  to  stand  for  Bristol.  Obtain- 
ing the  assent  of  his  Malton  friends  he  set  off,  and 
travelling  two  nights  arid  days  arrived,  after  a  journey 
of  over  300  miles,  at  Bristol.  "  He  drove  to  the  house 
of  the  mayor,  but  not  finding  him  at  home,  proceeded 
to  the  Guildhall,  where,  ascending  the  Hustings  and 

7  *  O  O 

saluting  the  electors,  sheriffs,  and  other  candidates,  he 
reposed  for  a  few  minutes,  being  utterly  exhausted  by 
fatigue  and  want  of  sleep ;  and  then  he  addressed  the 
citizens  in  a  speech  which  met  with  great  approbation." 
He  was  successful  in  the  contest,  and  on  his  being 
declared  by  the  sheriffs  duly  elected  as  one  of  the  repre- 
sentatives for  that  city,  he  made  another  speech  which 
is  memorable  in  the  political  literature  of  the  country. 

1  Prior's  Life  of  Burke,  vol.  i.  p.  280. 


92  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

One  of  the  ways  in  which  the  Platform  has  worked 
the  great  change  it  has  done  in  the  Constitution  of  the 
country,  has  been  by  altering  the  relative  position  of  the 
representatives  and  their  constituents,  that  alteration 
being  in  the  direction  of  increasing  the  control  over  the 
former  by  the  latter.  Upon  the  relationship  of  the 
representative  to  the  represented,  Burke  spoke  clearly 
and  decisively,  and  as  the  matter  frequently  claims 
attention  hereafter,  his  views  are  of  the  greatest  interest, 
both  as  being  the  exposition  of  so  distinguished  a  man, 
and  as  a  categorical  statement  on  the  subject  in  the 
latter  half  of  the  last  century,  just  when  the  Platform 
was  beginning  to  come  into  prominence. 

"  It  ought,"  he  said,1  "  to  be  the  happiness  and  glory 
of  a  representative  to  live  in  the  strictest  union,  the 
closest  correspondence,  and  the  most  unreserved  com- 
munication with  his  constituents.  Their  wishes  ought 
to  have  great  weight  with  him,  their  opinions  high 
respect,  their  business  unremitted  attention.  It  is  his 
duty  to  sacrifice  his  repose,  his  pleasures,  his  satisfac- 
tions, to  theirs ;  and  above  all,  ever,  and  in  all  cases, 
to  prefer  their  interest  to  his  own.  But  his  unbiassed 
opinion,  his  mature  judgment,  his  enlightened  conscience, 
he  ought  not  to  sacrifice  to  you,  to  any  man,  or  to  any 
set  of  men  living.  These  he  does  not  derive  from  your 
pleasure ;  no,  nor  from  the  law  and  the  Constitution. 
They  are  a  trust  from  Providence,  for  the  abuse  of  which 
he  is  deeply  answerable.  Your  representative  owes  you, 
not  his  industry  only,  but  his  judgment ;  and  he  betrays, 
instead  of  serving  you,  if  he  sacrifices  it  to  your  opinion. 

"  My  worthy  colleague  says  his  will  ought  to  be 
subservient  to  yours.  If  that  be  all,  the  thing  is  in- 

1  Burke's   Works,   "Speech  at  the  Conclusion  of  the  Poll,"  1774,  vol.  iii. 
p.  236. 


CHAP,  in  ELECTORS  AND  REPRESENTATIVES  93 

nocent.  If  Government  were  a  matter  of  will  upon 
any  side,  yours,  without  question,  ought  to  be  superior. 
But  Government  and  legislation  are  matters  of  reason 
and  judgment,  and  not  of  inclination  ;  and  what  sort  of 
reason  is  that  in  which  the  determination  precedes  the 
discussion ;  in  which  one  set  of  men  deliberate,  and 
another  decide,  and  where  those  who  form  the  conclu- 
sion are  perhaps  300  miles  distant  from  those  who  hear 
the  arguments  ? 

"  To  deliver  an  opinion  is  the  right  of  all  men  ;  that 
of  constituents  is  a  weighty  and  respectable  opinion, 
which  a  representative  ought  always  to  rejoice  to  hear, 
and  which  he  ought  always  most  seriously  to  consider. 
But  authoritative  instructions,  mandates  issued,  which 
the  member  is  bound  blindly  and  implicitly  to  obey,  to 
vote,  and  to  argue  for,  though  contrary  to  the  clearest 
conviction  of  his  judgment  and  conscience, — these  are 
things  utterly  unknown  to  the  laws  of  this  land,  and 
which  arise  from  a  fundamental  mistake  of  the  whole 
order  and  tenor  of  our  Constitution. 

"Parliament  is  not  a  congress  of  ambassadors  from 
different  and  hostile  interests,  which  interests  each 
must  maintain,  as  an  agent  and  advocate,  against  other 
agents  and  advocates ;  but  Parliament  is  a  deliberative 
assembly  of  one  nation,  with  one  interest,  that  of  the 
whole ;  where,  not  local  purposes,  not  local  prejudices, 
ought  to  guide,  but  the  general  good,  resulting  from 
the  general  reason  of  the  whole.  You  choose  a  member 
indeed ;  but  when  you  have  chosen  him,  he  is  not 
member  of  Bristol,  but  he  is  a  member  of  Parliament. 
If  the  local  constituent  should  have  an  interest,  or 
should  form  a  hasty  opinion,  evidently  opposite  to  the 
real  good  of  the  rest  of  the  community,  the  member  for 
that  place  ought  to  be  as  far,  as  any  other,  from  any 


94  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

"  endeavour  to  give  it  effect.  I  beg  pardon  for  saying  so 
much  on  this  subject.  I  have  been  unwillingly  drawn 
into  it,  but  I  shall  ever  use  a  frankness  of  communica- 
tion with  you." 

These  speeches  of  Burke  stand  out  conspicuously  as 
the  first  examples  of  the  frank  unrestrained  use  of  the 
election  Platform  by  a  really  great  orator  and  statesman, 
and  they  set  to  his  contemporaries,  and  to  posterity,  an 
example  which  is  a  landmark  in  the  history  of  the  Plat- 
form, and  which  was  bound  in  time  to  come  to  produce 
great  results.  But  with  this  solitary  exception,  the 
Platform  was  little  used  for  didactic  purposes.  Few 
men  were  in  Burke's  position  for  enlightening  or 
instructing  the  people,  others  had  neither  the  capacity 
nor  the  inclination  to  do  so,  whilst  many  looked  upon 
the  instruction  of  the  multitude  as  the  one  thing  to  be 
most  carefully  and  sedulously  guarded  against. 

The  didactic  use  of  the  Platform  being  so  extremely 
limited  at  this  period,  it  is  around  the  other  aspect  that 
interest  centres. 

Having  once  proved  its  power  and  won  a  triumph 
as  the  mouthpiece  of  popular  opinion,  it  was  improbable 
that,  with  a  growing  restlessness  among  the  people,  and 
an  increasing  need  to  articulate  their  wants,  the  newly- 
discovered  weapon  would  long  lie  idle.  The  records  of 
Parliament  show  that  a  dropping  fire  of  petitions  was 
kept  up.  Numerous  addresses,  too,  were  constantly 
being  prepared  and  presented  to  the  King.  We  find 
him  writing  to  Lord  North  on  the  10th  of  September 
1775  :  "  It  is  impossible  to  draw  up  a  more  dutiful  and 
affectionate  address  than  the  one  from  the  town  of 
Manchester,  which  really  gives  me  pleasure,  as  it  comes 
unsolicited.  As  you  seem  desirous  that  this  spirit 
should  be  encouraged,  I  will  certainly  not  object  to  it, 


CHAP,  in  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  AMERICAN  WAR  95 

though  by  fatal  experience  I  am  aware  that  they  will 
occasion  counter-petitions."1 

His  "  fatal  experience  "  was  once  more  verified  ;  and 
while  addresses  in  favour  of  coercing  the  American 
colonies  poured  in  from  all  quarters,  and  were  hailed 
with  delight  by  the  Ministers,  petitions  against  such  a 
course  flowed  in  from  Bristol,  Glasgow,  Liverpool,  and 
other  places,2  and  were  consigned  to  what  the  opposition 
called  the  "  Committee  of  oblivion." 

These  latter  petitions  were  evidence  that  the  country 
was  by  no  means  unanimously  in  favour  of  the  war 
between  England  and  her  American  colonies.  Public 
feeling  at  the  outset  had  approved  and  abetted  it,  but, 
after  a  time,  gradually  cooled  off.  Strangely  enough, 
one  effect  of  the  war  was  to  give  an  immense  impetus  to 
popular  ideas  in  England. 

Many  of  the  greatest  statesmen  in  the  country  had  all 
along  been  strongly  opposed  to  the  war ;  and  a  large 
portion  of  the  people  shared  their  views.  The  cause  of 
the  quarrel  was  so  flagrantly  unjust,  and  large  classes  of 
the  people  in  England  had  so  much  in  common  with 
the  Americans — "  violated  privileges,  infringed  rights, 
petitions  contemptuously  rejected"-— that  they  sym- 
pathised with  those  who  were  resisting  an  attempt  to 
exercise  unjust  authority.  But  instead  of  following 
such  violent  methods  as  the  Americans  adopted  for 
obtaining  redress,  they  began  to  work  in  the  more  con- 
stitutional manner  of  meeting  together,  and  discussing, 
and  proposing  plans  for  obtaining  measures  for  the 
reform  of  abuses,  and  the  removal  of  grievances. 

Towards  the  end  of  1779  the  position  of  the  country 
was  so  serious  as  to  cause  the  deepest  anxiety.  In 

1  Correspondence  between  George  III.  2  See  The  London  Gazette,  1775-76. 

and  Lord  North,  vol.  i.  p.  267. 


96  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

addition  to  the  revolt  in  America,  England  was  at  war 
with  France,  and  at  war  with  Spain.  Disaster  had 
followed  disaster ;  abroad,  one  half  of  the  foreign  acquisi- 
tions of  the  kingdom,  one  half  of  the  colonies,  were 
lost ;  at  home,  nearly  one  half  of  men's  income  went  to 
support  a  calamitous  war,  or,  what  roused  men's  feelings 
to  almost  greater  indignation,  went  to  pay  undeserved 
pensions,  infamous  sinecures,  and  unearned  salaries  to  a 
worthless  and  contemptible  crew  of  Court  sycophants 
and  Government  tools  and  dependents.  Taxes  weighed 
heavily  on  all  classes  of  the  people ;  the  high  prices  of 
the  requisites  of  life  crippled  them  still  further.  Cir- 
cumstances, therefore,  were  all  favourable  for  a  vigorous 
popular  movement,  and  it  was  not  long  before  one  began 
— the  Platform  again  being  called  into  requisition  as 
the  mouthpiece  of  the  agitators. 

This  agitation,  known  afterwards  as  the  Economy 
Agitation,  was  a  most  memorable  one,  more  so  than  the 
Middlesex  election  agitation,  and  left  a  greater  mark  on 
the  history  of  the  country.1 

On  this  occasion  the  movement  had  its  begin- 
ning in  the  North  Riding  of  Yorkshire,  a  county 
celebrated  for  the  independence  of  its  inhabitants. 
Here  a  few  private  gentlemen,  totally  free  from  party 
influence  or  connection,  feeling  only  a  heavy  financial 
pressure  on  themselves,  cast  about  for  a  remedy,  and 
finding  none,  sought  in  the  wider  wisdom  of  their 
fellows  help  and  guidance.  And,  accordingly,  on  the 
last  day  but  one  of  the  year,2  the  gentry,  clergy,  and 
freeholders  of  the  county  met  in  the  Assembly  Rooms 
at  York. 

The  gathering  was  "such  as  perhaps  never  was 
assembled  in  the  same  manner  in  this  nation."  Those 

1  Wyvill's  Political  Papers,  vol.  i.  p.  9.  2  1779. 


CHAP,  in  THE  ECONOMY  AGITATION  97 

of  "  the  first  consideration  and  property  in  the  county, 
if  not  in  the  kingdom,"  were  present.  "  Never  was 
there  a  more  conspicuous  display  of  genuine  patriotism, 
never  did  the  sacred  fire  kindled  by  English  liberty 
burn  with  a  purer  flame  than  in  that  assembly." 

The  Eeverend  Mr.  Wyvill  opened  the  business  in  a 
speech  of  which  the  principal  part  was  the  proposal  of 
a  Petition  to  the  House  of  Commons.  That  Petition 
summarised  the  evils  which  these  Yorkshire  gentlemen 
had  met  to  protest  against.1 

It  began  by  stating  the  following  matters  as  facts  : — 
"  That  the  nation  had  for  several  years  been  engaged  in  a 
most  expensive  and  unfortunate  war ;  that  many  of  our 
valuable  colonies,  having  actually  declared  themselves 
independent,  had  formed  a  strict  confederacy  with  our 
most  dangerous  and  inveterate  enemies ;  and  that  the 
consequence  of  these  combined  misfortunes  had  been  a 
large  addition  to  the  national  debt,  a  heavy  accumulation 
of  taxes,  with  a  rapid  decline  of  the  trade,  manufactures, 
and  land-rents  of  the  kingdom."  The  petitioners  then 
declared  that,  "  alarmed  at  the  diminished  resources, 
and  growing  burdens  of  this  country,  and  convinced 
that  rigid  frugality  had  become  indispensably  necessary 
in  every  department  of  the  State,  they  observed  with 
grief  that,  notwithstanding  the  calamitous  and  impover- 
ished condition  of  the  nation,  much  public  money  had 
been  improvidently  squandered,  that  many  individuals 
enjoyed  sinecure  places,  efficient  places  with  exorbitant 
emoluments,  and  pensions  unmerited  by  public  ser- 
vice, to  a  large  and  still  increasing  amount,  whence  the 
Crown  had  acquired  a  great  and  unconstitutional  influ- 
ence, which,  if  not  checked,  might  soon  prove  fatal  to 
the  liberties  of  this  country."  They  further  declared, 

1  Wyvill's  Political  Papers,  vol.  i.  p.  7. 


98  THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

that,  conceiving  the  true  end  of  every  legitimate 
government  to  be,  not  the  emolument  of  any  individual, 
but  the  welfare  of  the  community ;  and  considering 
that,  by  the  Constitution,  the  custody  of  the  national 
purse  was  entrusted  in  a  peculiar  manner  to  the  House 
of  Commons,  they  begged  leave  to  represent  that  until 
effectual  measures  were  taken  to  redress  these  oppressive 
grievances,  the  grant  of  any  additional  sum  of  public 
money  beyond  the  produce  of  the  then  existing  taxes 
would  be  injurious  to  the  rights  and  property  of  the 
people,  and  derogatory  from  the  honour  and  dignity  of 
Parliament.  They,  therefore,  appealing  to  the  justice 
of  the  Commons,  most  earnestly  requested  that,  before 
any  new  burdens  were  laid  upon  the  country,  effectual 
measures  might  be  taken  by  that  House  to  inquire  into 
and  correct  the  gross  abuses  in  the  expenditure  of 
public  money,  to  reduce  all  exorbitant  emoluments,  to 
rescind  and  abolish  all  sinecure  places  and  unmerited 
pensions,  and  to  appropriate  the  produce  to  the  neces- 
sities of  the  State. 

The  detailed  account  of  the  speeches  affords  a 
graphic  picture  of  the  "Platform"  at  this  period.1 

The  first  resolution  that  the  Petition  be  adopted  and 
sent  having  been  proposed,  Mr.  Cholmeley,  M.P.,  who 
was  evidently  not  well  disposed  to  the  object  of  the 
meeting,  rose  and  endeavoured  to  damp  the  ardour  of 
those  present.  He  declared  that  he  had  sat  too  long 
in  the  House  to  think  that  a  Petition  would  be  pro- 
ductive of  any  good  effect ;  that  as  the  Petition  stated 
a  misapplication  of  public  money,  Parliament  would 
expect  some  proof  of  this.  For  his  part,  he  only  had  it 
from  common  report.  A  Mr.  Drummond  seconded  this 
opposition,  and  said  that  "  the  expenditure  of  public 

1  Wyvill's  Political  Papers,  vol.  i.  p.  11. 


CHAP,  in  THE  YORKSHIRE  MEETING  99 

money  was  subject  to  the  constitutional  control  of 
Parliament ;  that  if  any  men  had  misapplied  it,  that 
control  should  be  made  use  of.  Striking  off  pensions, 
etc.,  was  plausible  in  theory,  but  difficult  in  practice. 
He  desired  to  know  who  was  to  be  the  censor,  who  was 
to  judge  of  the  merit  of  pensioners,  and  to  draw  the 
line." 

He  got  an  answer  from  a  Mr.  Pritchard  which  must 
have  sounded  strange  then,  but  which  contained  memor- 
able words — "  The  people,  the  oppressed  people,  were  to 
be  the  censors."  A  long  speech  was  then  made  by  a 
Mr.  Smelt,  who  reprobated  the  Petition,  and  launched 
into  a  fulsome  panegyric  on  the  Crown,  stating  that 
"  its  power  should  be  increased  instead  of  diminished, 
that  the  King  was  not  the  servant  of  the  people,  but 
their  soul,  the  life,  the  soul,  the  very  existence  of  the 
Constitution."  He  said  that  one  of  the  greatest  mis- 
fortunes of  this  country  was,  that  no  Minister  was 
found  to  keep  up  the  taxes,  on  the  return  of  peace,  to 
the  greatest  height  of  a  war  establishment  (here  the 
whole  meeting  expressed  the  utmost  disapprobation). 
An  eyewitness  of  the  meeting  subsequently  explained 
Mr.  Smelt's  opposition,  stating  that  he  was  quite  mad, 
"  and  some  freeholders  at  the  end  of  the  room,"  says  a 
newspaper  report,  "  were  highly  incensed  at  the  speech, 
and  began  to  express  their  displeasure  in  a  way  which 
seemed  to  threaten  some  more  serious  marks  of  their 
resentment  than  mere  words.  Our  correspondent  in- 
formed them  who  Mr.  Smelt  was,  and  his  present 
condition.  In  an  instant  the  fury  fled  from  their  faces, 
every  eye  looked  compassion,  and  every  voice  mur- 
mured condolence." 

Mr.  Turner  succeeded  Mr.  Smelt,  read  a  long  list  of 
pensions  and  exorbitant  salaries,  arid  declared  that  even 


ioo         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

the  proxies  of  the  Lords,  whom  he  called  "  the  Upper 
House  of  Corruption,"  had  their  prices. 

Mr.  Hill  rose  next,  and  said  that  introducing  the 
name  of  the  King  was  indelicate  to  the  meeting,  as 
tending  to  intimidate  them.  The  King,  he  doubted 
not,  might  be  a  patriot ;  it  was  the  undue  influence  of 
his  Ministers  that  excited  indignation,  and  it  was  their 
misconduct  that  was  universally  felt.  Other  speeches 
followed. 

Immediately  after  the  discussion  the  Petition  was 
read  again  and  adopted,  and  a  resolution  come  to  to 
forward  it  to  Parliament.  And  then  followed  another 
and  a  most  important  resolution  :  "  That  a  Committee 
of  sixty-one  gentlemen  be  appointed  to  carry  on  the 
necessary  correspondence  for  effectually  promoting  the 
object  of  the  Petition,  and  to  prepare  a  plan  of  an  As- 
sociation on  legal  and  constitutional  grounds  to  support 
that  laudable  reform,  and  such  other  measures  as  may 
conduce  to  restore  the  freedom  of  Parliament,  to  be 
presented  to  this  meeting  held  by  adjournment  on  the 
Tuesday  in  Easter  week  next  ensuing," l 

This  was  the  first  occasion  when  a  regular  scheme  of 
Association  was  propounded  as  supplementary  to  the 
Platform,  an  organisation  which  was  to  be  used  as  an 
instrument  for  giving  cohesion  and  strength  to  the 
movement.  The  scheme  was  considerably  in  advance 
of  the  "  Committee  of  Freeholders,"  which,  ten  years 
previously,  the  electors  of  Middlesex  formed  at  the  time 
of  their  quarrel  with  the  House  of  Commons.  It  was 
on  a  far  larger  and  more  ambitious  scale  than  those 
Societies  which  have  been  referred  to  in  the  last  chap- 
ter. The  proposers  of  the  plan  felt  they  had  to  justify 
it  on  account  of  its  novelty,  and  one  of  them  did  so  in 

1  See  Political  Papers,  collected  by  the  Reverend  Christopher  Wyvill,  vol.  i.  p.  5. 


CHAP,  in  POLITICAL  ASSOCIATION  101 

the  following  speech  :  "  Nothing  was  more  common 
than  association  for  important  purposes,  or  for  purposes 
of  little  moment.  They  had  heard  of  associations  for 
the  detection  of  swindlers,  and  even  of  associations  for 
the  preservation  of  game,  and  may  not  a  body  of  free- 
holders associate  to  give  their  joint  votes  to  check 
corruption  and  to  preserve  the  Constitution  ?  That 
association  is  a  measure  of  unquestionable  legality 
appears  from  the  spirit  of  our  laws,  from  the  express 
right  to  present  Petitions  to  Parliament,  which  involves 
the  right  to  join  in  any  peaceful  mode  for  the  more 
effectual  support  of  those  Petitions." 

Burke  wrote  shortly  afterwards  to  Lord  Rockingham, 
expressing  his  pleasure  at  the  success  of  the  meeting. 
"  It  was  well ;  very  well.  The  shade  was  of  as  much 
importance  as  the  lights  in  your  picture.  Smelt  was 
admirable,  and  his  speech  must  have  had  a  good  effect 
in  very  many  ways."1 

The  example  thus  set,  other  counties  quickly  fol- 
lowed. The  case  of  the  Yorkshire  petitioners  was  so 
moderately  and  conclusively  stated  as  to  command  a 
very  general  concurrence.  Only  a  few  days  after  the 
York  meeting  another  county  gave  expression  by  the 
Platform  to  its  feelings.  The  county  of  Hants  held  a 
meeting  at  Winchester — "  The  most  numerous  and  re- 
spectable known  in  that  county  for  many  years."  After 
numerous  speeches,  a  petition  to  Parliament  on  the  plan 
of  the  York  petition  was  "  highly  approved  by  all 
present,"  and  unanimously  agreed  to. 

But  a  far  more  important  meeting  took  place  a  few 
days  later.  On  7th  January  (1780)  "A  numerous  and 
most  respectable  assembly  of  the  nobility,  gentry,  clergy, 
and  freeholders  of  the  county  of  Middlesex  "  met  in  the 

1  See  Burkc's  Works,  vol.  i.  p.  414. 


102         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  I 

Assembly  Rooms  at  Hackney.  Many  persons  of  conse- 
quence were  present,  the  Duke  of  Portland  and  three 
or  four  peers  among  the  number.  "  There  has  not  been 
a  meeting  for  many  years  at  which  so  numerous  a  body 
of  opulent  freeholders  were  present." 

A  petition  exactly  similar  to  that  of  Yorkshire  was 
adopted,  after  several  speeches  had  been  made,  one 
speaker  asserting  that,  all  taxes  considered,  they  paid 
5s.  in  the  £1.  But  the  meeting  did  not  stop  with  the 
adoption  of  the  Petition,  and  Middlesex  may  claim  the 
honour  of  originating  a  system  of  organisation  in  sup- 
port of  the  Platform  far  beyond  anything  hitherto 
attempted. 

A  Mr.  Baker  proposed  the  establishment  of  a  com- 
mittee to  correspond  with  the  Association  of  other 
counties,  and  open  an  immediate  correspondence  with 
the  county  of  York.  This  was  going  a  long  way  in 
advance  of  Yorkshire.  There  is  no  sufficiently  definite 
expression  either  in  the  Resolution  or  speeches  at  the 
York  meeting  that  more  was  intended  by  the  proposed 
Association  there  than  the  association  of  individuals  for 
the  particular  purpose.1  What  Middlesex  proposed  was 
the  association  of  separate  bodies — quite  another  matter, 
and  altogether  without  precedent. 

This  was  a  completely  new  feature  in  English  pol- 
itical life,  making  this  agitation  memorable  in  our 
history — the  formation  of  a  powerful  Association  to 
back  up  Platform  agitation — and,  inasmuch  as  organisa- 
tion has  ever  been  the  most  powerful  aid  to  the  Plat- 
form, the  event  is  of  particular  interest  in  the  history  of 
the  Platform.  The  rapidity  with  which  county  followed 
county  in  their  adoption  of  the  requests  of  the  York- 

1  This  is,  I  think,  made  quite  clear  T.  Fox,  Chairman  of  the  Westminster 
by  the  answer  of  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  (see  Wyvill's  Papers,  vol.  i. 
Yorkshire  Sub-Committee  to  Charles  p.  93). 


CHAP,  in  THE  ECONOMY  AGITATION  103 

shire  petitioners,  and  their  recourse  to  the  Platform  for 
consultation  and  for  the  public  expression  of  their 
views,  was  truly  astonishing.  In  Sussex  the  Duke  of 
Richmond  and  several  of  the  nobility,  and  gentry,  and 
freeholders,  applied  to  the  High  Sheriff  to  call  a  meeting, 
"  conceiving  it  to  be  highly  proper  in  times  of  national 
distress  that  the  people  at  large  should  have  an  oppor- 
tunity of  examining  their  situation,  and  of  concerting 
measures  for  the  public  good."  The  High  Sheriff 
refused  to  do  so,  saying  he  did  not  think  the  requisition 
numerously  enough  signed.  The  Duke,  however,  sum- 
moned a  meeting  himself,  and  it  was  held,  and  a 
Petition,  the  same  as  that  of  Yorkshire,  was  adopted. 
The  High  Sheriff  of  Essex  likewise  refused  to  call  a 
meeting;  nevertheless  one  was  held,  and  a  Petition 
adopted. 

The  country,  despite  High  Sheriffs,  seemed  to  be 
determined  on  the  expediency  of  pursuing  the  example 
set  by  Yorkshire.  On  the  18th  of  January  "a  very 
respectable  meeting  of  freeholders  of  the  county  of  Hert- 
ford met  at  the  Shire  House  at  Hertford,  where,  after 
many  speeches  had  been  made,  and  much  discussion, 
resolutions  were  carried  the  same  as  those  of  York  and 
Middlesex.  On  the  21st  January  "a  large  and  respect- 
able meeting  of  the  nobility,  etc.,  of  Surrey  was  held  at 
Epsom,"  five  lords  and  many  baronets  being  present — a 
fact  sufficient  to  prevent  a  repetition  of  the  taunt  of  the 
boroughmongering  fraternity  in  the  House  of  Commons 
that  men  of  property  and  gentlemen  were  not  taking 
part  in  the  movement,  and  that  it  was  only  the  base-born 
and  those  unfit  to  enter  the  gates  of  the  King's  palace 
who  were  giving  the  trouble.  A  Petition  was  agreed  to 
unanimously. 

Dorset  and  Cumberland  also  joined  in  the  agitation. 


104         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

The  economists,  for  so  the  principal  workers  in  this 
agitation  can  best  be  described,  received  one  check  at 
a  county  meeting,  and  the  account  of  the  occurrence 
is  interesting  as  showing  the  toleration  there  was  at  this 
period  in  public  meetings  for  the  statement  of  opposite 
opinions,  and  how  largely  the  proceedings  at  a  meeting 
sometimes  assumed  the  form  of  a  discussion  or  debate. 
This  check  was  given  them  at  Huntingdon,  where,  on 
the  20th  January,  a  very  numerous  meeting  was  held  to 
consider  a  Petition  on  the  same  lines  as  the  Petition  of 
Yorkshire. 

After  much  debate  and  difference  of  opinion,  the 
Duke  of  Manchester  and  Lord  Fitzwilliam,  speaking  in 
favour  of  the  Petition,  and  Lord  Sandwich  and  Lord 
Hinchingbrooke  and  others  against  it,  the  Sheriff  put  the 
question,  and  declared  that  the  majority  of  the  hands 
were  against  the  Petition,  upon  which  it  was  proposed 
to  divide  and  tellers  were  appointed  ;  but  the  supporters 
of  the  Petition  refusing  to  divide,  "  a  general  confusion 
ensued,"  and  the  numbers  could  not  be  declared. 

A  few  days  after  this,  two  meetings  were  held.  One 
was  at  Wells,  where  the  Petition  was  adopted.  Mr. 
Canon  Wilson  opposed  it,  but  "  bewildering  himself  in 
logical  distinctions,"  and,  being  totally  unsupported,  he 
"  suddenly  concluded."  As  a  set-off  against  this  calamity, 
it  appears  that  a  Mr.  Luders  made  a  speech,  to  which, 
said  the  newspaper  reporter,  "it  is  impossible  to  do 
ample  justice ;  it  was  eloquent  and  correct ;  he  spoke 
with  great  powers  of  oratory  and  reason." 

The  other  meeting  was  at  Gloucester,  where,  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  the  Sheriff  had  refused  to  convene  a 
meeting,  a  numerous  and  respectable  meeting  was  held 
at  the  Boot  Hall,  a  good  deal  of  speaking  took  place, 
and  a  Petition  was  agreed  to. 


CHAP,  in        EX-MINISTERS  AND  THE  PLATFORM  105 

One  more  meeting  must  be  mentioned,  that  of  the 
nobility,  gentry,  and  freeholders  of  the  county  of  Wilts, 
which  was  held  on  the  28th  of  January  1780,  not  that 
it  was  by  any  means  the  last  of  the  meetings  of  the 
agitation,  but  because  it  is  specially  memorable  on 
account  of  the  fact  that  it  was  absolutely  the  first  public 
political  meeting,  not  connected  with  an  election,  at 
which  leading  politicians,  who  had  held  high  office,  and 
who,  very  shortly  afterwards,  were  to  be  the  principal 
men  in  the  government  of  the  country,  made  use  of  the 
Platform.  The  two  men  who  thus  for  the  first  time 
used  the  Platform  were  the  Earl  of  Shelburne,  who 
had  been  Secretary  of  State  in  the  Duke  of  Grafton's 
Administration  from  1766  to  1768,  and  Charles  James 
Fox,  who  had  been  a  Lord  of  the  Admiralty  from  1770 
to  1772,  and  a  Lord  of  the  Treasury  from  1772  to 
1774. 

Lord  Shelburne's  speech  is  shortly  reported  (about 
twenty  lines),  the  most  noticeable  sentences  in  it  being, 
"  He  heartily  wished  every  man  present  would  stand 
forth  and  disclose  his  opinion  without  diffidence  or 
reserve  ....  that  this  country  was  not  to  be  saved 
by  men  who  had  a  knack  of  tacking  a  few  sentences 
together,  but  by  the  people  at  large."  Fox's  speech  is 
a  real  specimen  of  a  genuine  Platform  speech,  and  is 
reported  at  considerable  length. 

He  said  :  "  Though  much  used  to  public  speaking,  he 
had  never  addressed  such  an  assembly  as  that  then 
present,  for  he  had  never  before  spoken  to  an  uncorrupt 
assembly "  (a  compliment  to  the  House  of  Commons). 
He  then  proceeded  to  show  the  great  advantages  which 
the  people  might  gain  by  insisting  firmly  on  their  rights, 
and  on  the  redress  of  their  grievances ;  and  earnestly 
exhorted  them  to  consider  their  own  weight  and  conse- 


106         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

quence  in  the  State ;  and  he  repeatedly  asserted  that  it 
would  not  he  in  the  power  of  the  best  or  ablest  Minister 
to  make  them  great  and  happy,  unless  they  had  the 
spirit  and  will  to  become  so.  An  honourable  Gentleman 
had  mentioned  "  the  magnanimity  of  Parliament  in 
relieving  Ireland  ?  What  was  it  made  Parliament 
magnanimous  in  relieving  Ireland  ?  It  was  the  magna- 
nimity of  the  people  of  Ireland,  who  were  resolved  to 
be  relieved.  What  was  it  made  Parliament  magnani- 
mous towards  America  ?  It  was  the  vigorous  and 
successful  opposition  made  by  the  people  of  America  to 
their  power.  From  the  vigorous  exertion  of  the  people 
of  England  to  rid  themselves  of  their  grievances  the 
same  success  might  be  expected.  He  conjured  them  to 
depend  chiefly  upon  themselves  for  a  redress  of  their 
grievances,  and  not  to  sit  still  in  expectation  of  it  from 
any  statesman,  how  great  soever  might  be  their  abilities, 
or  how  patriotic  soever  their  intentions."  .  .  .  He  con- 
cluded by  exhorting  constituents  diligently  to  watch 
the  conduct  of  their  representatives,  and  carefully  to 
inquire  into  the  motives  of  it — in  fine,  to  consider  them- 
selves as  the  guardians  of  their  own  rights,  and  to 
entertain  a  rational  distrust  of  all  men  in  public 
stations.1 

Only  one  month  of  agitation  was  over — only  for  one 
month  had  the  Platform  been  telling  of  the  grievances 
of  the  people,  and  already  did  the  meetings  awaken 
searchings  of  spirit  and  fears  among  the  Ministers  and 
their  dependents.  Already  were  charges  of  faction 
and  false  patriotism  hurled  against  the  meetings  and 
their  promoters. 

"  With  the  plausible  pretence  of  establishing 
economy,  and  checking  corruption,  and  venality,"  wrote 

1  See  The  Gazetteer  find  New  Daily  Advertiser,  1st  February  1780. 


CHAP,  in  THE  WESTMINSTER  MEETING  107 

a  contemporary  newspaper,1  "  their  scheme  is  to  com- 
bine and  associate  the  people  in  all  parts  of  the  kingdom, 
and  to  form  committees  of  correspondence,  that  by  their 
joint  force  and  opposition  to  the  Government  they  may 
effect  a  change  of  Administration,  or  raise  a  confederacy 
which  shall  dictate  to  the  Legislature  and  exercise 
supreme  power  in  the  State." 

In  this  agitation,  so  far,  the  country  had  been  the 
most  active.  London,  however,  at  last  joined.  "  The 
spirit  of  the  freeholders  of  York  seems  to  pervade  the 
whole  country,"  wrote  a  London  newspaper,2  "and  at 
length  has  begun  to  show  itself  in  the  metropolis." 

On  the  2d  February  a  meeting  was  held  in  West- 
minster Hall.  About  3000  persons  met,  headed  by  the 
Duke  of  Portland,  the  Cavendishes,  Wilkes,  Burke, 
Townshend,  Lord  Temple.3  Charles  Fox  was  placed 
in  the  chair ;  Sawbridge  moved  the  Petition,  and  was 
seconded  by  Wilkes,  who,  "in  one  of  the  best  speeches 
he  ever  made,"  expressed  his  happiness  at  that  "  spirit 
of  association  which  at  this  period  pervaded  the  king- 
dom." A  Petition  similar  to  that  of  York  was  voted, 
and  a  committee  of  lords  and  others  chosen.  Charles 
Fox  then  made  "  a  fine  and  warm  speech/' 4  and  was  par- 
ticularly severe  on  Lord  North,  and  Dr.  Jebb  proposed 
Mr.  Fox  for  the  future  candidate  for  Westminster,  wrhich 
was  received  with  universal  applause.  London  city 
followed  suit  with  a  meeting  a  few  days  after. 

It  is  clear  from  these  accounts  that  in  this  agitation, 

o 

in  which  the  Platform  took  so  conspicuous  a  part,  a  large 
portion  of  the  upper  and  middle  classes  participated. 
The  names  of  those  who  are  reported  as  attending  the 
meetings  as  well  as  of  the  speakers  show  this  conclu- 

1  The  Morning     Chronicle,     27th          3  Ibid.  3d  February  1780. 
January  1780.  4  Last  Journals  of  Horace  Walpolc, 

2  Ibid.  31st  January  1780.  vol.  ii.  p.  364. 


io8         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

sively,  and  this  circumstance  is  one  of  those  which 
distinguishes  this  agitation  from  that  in  connection  with 
the  Middlesex  election.  It  also  marks  strongly  the  fact 
that  whilst  many  were  disposed  to  discountenance  the 
Platform  when  used  by  those  they  did  not  approve  of, 
yet  they  themselves  were  willing  to  use  it  when  it  suited 
their  own  purposes  to  do  so.  In  this  case  the  object  was 
one  which  enabled  those  participating  in  it  to  sink  their 
political  differences,  as  all  who  did  not  profit  by  Govern- 
ment extravagance  might  combine  for  economy  in  the 
administration  of  State  affairs. 

Summing  up  the  number  of  meetings  which  had  been 
held,  and  having  regard  to  the  position  and  character  of 
the  people  who  had  attended  them,  it  is  apparent  that 
by  means  of  the  Platform  a  very  considerable  agitation 
against  the  Government  had  been  created  in  the  country, 
and  the  new  feature  of  association  rendered  the  agita- 
tion more  formidable  than  any  which  had  previously 
taken  place. 

To  repeat  the  test  already  laid  down  for  gauging  the 
power  of  the  Platform,  we  must  examine  how  far  it  had, 
on  this  occasion,  an  effect  on  Parliament  and  on  the 
Government. 

The  effect  w^as  considerable — greater  by  far  than  had 
been  the  case  in  the  Middlesex  election  agitation. 

"  The  Court  has  been  thunderstruck  with  what  has 
already  been  done,"  wrote  Horace  Walpole,  on  the  2d 
February ;  and  a  few  days  later  he  varied  it  somewhat 
by  saying,  "At  first  the  Court  was  struck  dumb." 
Then  looking  forward  to  the  future  with  interest  he 
added : 1  "  Detached  scenes  there  have  been,  in  different 
provinces ;  they  will  be  collected  soon  into  a  drama  in 
St.  Stephen's  Chapel." 2 

1  Walpole's  Letters,  vol.  vii.  p.  325.         2  Ibid.  p.  328. 


CHAP,  in         PRESENTATION  OF  THE  PETITIONS  109 

The  first  scene  of  the  drama  took  place  in  the  House 
of  Commons  on  the  8th  February  1780,1  when  the 
Petition  from  the  county  of  York  was  presented  by  Sir 
G.  Savile,  he  who  exactly  ten  years  previously  had 
boldly  told  the  House  that  they  had  "  betrayed  the 
rights  of  their  constituents."  History  relates  that  the 
importance  of  the  subject,  the  novelty  of  the  occasion, 
and,  perhaps,  still  more  the  character  of  that  eminent 
and  revered  patriot,  produced  so  profound  an  attention, 
that  deep  silence  and  stillness  reigned  in  every  part  of 
the  House. 

Well  might  Ministerial  members  of  the  House  be 
silent  and  listen  with  bated  breath.  Half  England  had 
risen  in  public  and  formal  judgment  on  them  and  their 
misdeeds,  and  now  not  merely  the  accuser  but  the 
reprover  had  come,  cataloguing  their  iniquities  with  un- 
faltering hand ;  and  holding  up  their  enormities  before 
their  eyes  and  the  eyes  of  the  world.  It  was  the  first 
clear  and  unmistakable  monition  to  the  whole  crew  of 
"  King's  friends,"  boroughmongers,  placemen,  and  the 
corrupt  hangers-on  of  the  Government,  as  well  as  to  the 
Government  itself,  that  they  must  amend  their  ways, 
that  England  and  England's  people  were  not  theirs  to 
do  what  they  liked  with,  as  they  seemed  to  think  they 
were. 

"  He  brought  a  Petition,"  said  Sir  G.  Savile,  "  which 
had  swallowed  up  the  consideration  of  all  private  objects, 
and  superseded  all  private  petitions — a  Petition  sub- 
scribed by  8000  freeholders  and  upwards. 

"The  people  had  heard  that  a  regard  to  private 
interest  in  the  House  was  a  great  enemy  to  the  dis- 
charge of  public  duty.  They  feel  severely  the  pressure 
of  heavy  taxes,  and  yet  are  at  the  same  time  told  that 

1  See  Parliamentary  History,  1780,  vol.  xx.  p.  1370. 


no         THE  PLATFORM:    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PARTI 

"  the  money  which  they  can  ill  spare  is  wasted  profusely, 
not  only  without  its  producing  any  good,  but  that  it  is 
applied  to  the  production  of  many  bad  effects.  They 
beg  that  inquiry  may  be  made  into  the  expenditure  of 
that  money ;  that  if  there  are  any  exorbitant  salaries 
they  may  be  reduced ;  that  if  there  are  any  useless 
places  or  unmerited  pensions  they  may  be  abolished. 
These  things,  he  said,  were  represented  calmly  and  with 
moderation.  .  .  .  Never,  surely,  were  petitioners  to 
Parliament,  upon  any  great  public  grievance,  more  cool 
and  dispassionate.  They  confine  themselves  to  one 
object — the  expenditure  of  public  money.  But  though 
they  made  no  strictures  on  the  past  management  of 
Ministers,  he  could  not  but  in  candour  acknowledge 
that  it  was  pretty  plainly  hinted  or  implied,  that 
those  who  had  hitherto  managed  our  public  affairs 
should  manage  them  no  more.  .  .  .  He  made  no 
threats ;  the  Petition  was  not  presented  by  men  with 
swords  and  muskets.  It  was  a  legal,  a  constitutional 
Petition.  The  request  of  the  petitioners  was  so  just 
and  reasonable  that  they  could  not  but  expect  it 
would  be  granted ;  but  should  it  be  refused,  there  he 
would  leave  a  blank — that  blank  let  the  consciences,  let 
the  feelings,  let  the  reason  of  Ministers  supply.  Partial 
expedients,  palliations,  excuses,  mock  inquiries,  would  not 
be  sufficient.  The  universality  of  the  sentiments  on  this 
subject,  he  said,  was  no  contemptible  proof  of  their  just- 
ness. He  wished  that  House  to  consider,  from  whom 
that  Petition  came.  It  was  first  moved  in  a  meeting  of 
six  hundred  gentlemen  and  upwards ;  in  the  hall  where 
that  Petition  was  conceived,  there  was  more  property 
than  within  the  walls  of  that  House." l  He  then  threw 
down  with  a  good  deal  of  vehemence  upon  the  table  a 

1  Parliamentary  History,  1780,  vol.  xx.  p.  1376. 


CHAP,  in          THE  PETITIONS  AND  PARLIAMENT  in 

list  of  the  gentlemen's  names,  and  continued  :  "  But 
they  are  not  to  abandon  their  Petition,  whatever  may 
may  be  its  fate  in  this  House ;  there  is  a  committee 
appointed  to  correspond  on  the  subject  of  the  Petition 
with  the  committees  of  other  counties,"  and  he  concluded 
by  likewise  throwing  on  the  table  a  list  of  the  names  of 
the  committee. 

Well  can  we  understand  that  "  the  Minister  seemed 
to  show  some  vexation  and  resentment  in  his  answer." l 

Fox  backed  up  the  Petition.  "  He  could  not 
imagine,"  he  said,  "  that  any  objection  could  possibly  be 
made  to  the  Petition.  But  some  might  perhaps  say, 
Are  we  sinners  above  all  that  went  before  us  ?  like 
those  on  whom  the  Tower  of  Siloam  fell  ?  Are  we  more 
corrupt  than  other  Parliaments  who  were  never  pestered 
with  petitions  of  this  kind  ?  No,"  said  he,  "I  do  not 
suppose  you  are  ;  but  though  former  Parliaments  were 
as  bad  as  you,  and  you  know  the  severity  of  that  com- 
parison, yet  the  people  did  not  know  it.  Now  they  do 
not  perhaps  see  it,  but  they  feel  it ;  the}  feel  the 
pressure  of  taxes,  and  they  beg  you  would  not  lay  your 
hand  so  heavily  upon  them,  but  be  as  economical  as 
possible  in  the  expenditure  of  their  money.  Let  the 
Ministers  grant  the  request  of  the  people,  and  the  whole 
glory  of  so  popular  a  compliance  will  be  entirely  theirs. 
Like  charity,  it  will  cover  the  multitude  of  their  past 


sins."2 


The  other  Petitions  followed  the  presentation  of  this 
leading  Petition  very  fast. 

No  less  than  twenty-six  counties  in  England,  and 
three  in  Wales,  and  several  considerable  cities,  had 
adopted  petitions  and  passed  resolutions,  and  as  one 

1  Annual  Register,  1780,  p.  90.  2  Parliamentary  History,  1780,  vol. 

xx.  p.  1378. 


112         THE  PLATFORM:    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PARTI 

petition  after  another  was  presented,  even  so  corrupt, 
so  self-assertive  an  assembly  as  the  then  House  of 
Commons,  must  have  felt  that  they  were  face  to  face 
with  a  display  of  popular  opinion  such  as  they  had  never 
before  witnessed. 

Before  any  direct  Parliamentary  action  was  taken  on 
these  petitions,  the  effect  of  the  agitation  reached  the 
House  of  Commons  in  another  shape,  that  of  a  plan  by 
Edmund  Burke,  who,  stimulated  by  the  meetings,  Plat- 
formings,  and  petitionings,  propounded  a  most  elaborate 
measure  for  the  better  security  of  the  independence  of 
Parliament,  and  the  economical  reform  of  the  civil  and 
other  establishments. 

What  he  had  bent  the  whole  force  of  his  mind  to,  he 
said,  was  "  the  reduction  of  that  corrupt  influence, 
which  is  itself  the  perennial  spring  of  all  prodigality,  and 
of  all  disorder,  which  loads  us  more  than  millions  of 
debt,  which  takes  away  vigour  from  our  arms,  wisdom 
from  our  councils,  and  every  shadow  of  authority  and 
credit  from  the  most  venerable  parts  of  our  Constitution."1 

That  corrupt  influence  was  principally  maintained 
by  the  existence  of  a  large  number  of  valuable  offices 
which  were  sufficient  to  corrupt  Parliament  with. 

To  take  away  from  the  Crown  such  a  powerful  in- 
strument for  evil,  he  proposed  the  abolition  of  nearly 
fifty  of  these  unnecessary  offices  which  were  held  by 
Members  of  Parliament,  and  thereby  also  to  effect  an 
economy  of  some  £200,000  a  year. 

He  concluded  his  speech  with  a  magnificent  burst 
of  prophetic  oratory  :  "  Let  the  Commons  in  Parliament 
assembled  be  one  and  the  same  thing  with  the  commons 
at  large.  The  distinctions  that  are  made  to  so  separate 
us  are  unnatural  and  wicked  contrivances.  Let  us 

1  Parliavicntai-y  History,  vol.  xxi.  p.  1. 


CHAP,  in  A  "NATIONAL  ASSOCIATION"  113 

identify,  let  us  incorporate  ourselves  with  the  people. 
Let  us  cut  all  the  cables  and  snap  all  the  chains  which 
tie  us  to  an  unfaithful  shore,  and  enter  the  friendly 
harbour  that  shoots  far  out  into  the  main  its  moles  and 
jetties  to  receive  us.  '  War  with  the  world,  and  peace 
with  our  constituents.'  Be  this  our  motto  and  our 
principle ;  then,  indeed,  we  shall  be  truly  great. 
Eespecting  ourselves,  we  shall  be  respected  by  the 
world.  At  present  all  is  troubled,  and  cloudy,  and 
distracted,  and  full  of  anger  and  turbulence,  both  abroad 
and  at  home ;  but  the  air  may  be  cleared  by  this  storm, 
and  light  and  fertility  may  follow  it.  Let  us  give  a 
faithful  pledge  to  the  people,  that  we  honour  indeed 
the  Crown,  but  that  we  belong  to  them ;  that  we  are 
their  auxiliaries  and  not  their  taskmasters ;  their  fellow- 
labourers  in  the  same  vineyard,  not  lording  over  their 
rights,  but  helpers  of  their  joy ;  that  to  tax  them  is  a 
grievance  to  ourselves ;  but  to  cut  off  from  our  enjoy- 
ments to  forward  theirs,  is  the  highest  gratification  we 
are  capable  of  receiving." l 

Such  was  the  alarm  caused  in  the  Commons  by  the 
agitation  out  of  doors  that  the  principal  of  the  Bills 
which  he  introduced  got  as  far  as  the  Committee  stage 
in  the  House  of  Commons  ;  there,  however,  it  perished. 

Some  time  elapsed  before  the  House  would  give  its 
consideration  to  the  Petitions,  and  the  leaders  of  the 
agitation  made  good  use  of  it. 

Several  of  the  Chairmen  of  the  Committees,  who 
had  met  together  in  London,  issued  on  the  28th  of 
February  a  circular  to  the  several  Committees  through- 
out the  kingdom  requesting  each  of  them  to  depute  one, 
two,  or  three  members  to  meet  in  London  to  confer 
together  upon  the  most  effectual  mode  of  supporting 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxi.  p.  71. 


ii4         THE  PLATFORM:    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PARTI 

the  objects  of  their  petitions  and  some  other  important 
matters.  An  explanatory  letter  from  Wyvill  accom- 
panied it :  "  Each  county,  city,  and  town  having  first 
associated,  separately  and  apart,  the  whole  body  of  peti- 
tioners in  due  time  may  be  collected  and  firmly  con- 
solidated in  one  great  '  National  Association ' ;  the 
obvious  consequence  of  which  must  be  certain  and 
complete  success  to  the  constitutional  reform  proposed 
by  the  people."1 

Several  of  the  counties  responded  to  the  invitation, 
and  sent  deputies  to  London.  Among  these  delegates 
was  Sheridan,  and  years  afterwards,  when  the  mere 
mention  of  the  word  "  Convention  "  was  like  flaring  a 
red  rag  in  the  face  of  a  bull,  we  have  a  description  from 
him  of  the  meetings  of  these  delegates  and  of  their  object. 
He  said2  that  "  in  collecting  public  opinion  so  as  to 
make  it  operate  on  the  House  of  Commons,  it  was 
never  intended  that  it  should  operate  by  anything  like 
violence,  or  force,  or  rebellion,  but  that  they  certainly  did 
expect  to  create  a  degree  of  awe  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons of  them  and  their  proceedings ;  not  a  wrong  or 
improper  awe,  but  the  sort  of  awe  and  respect  which 
they  conceived  the  House  of  Commons  was  bound  to 
pay,  and  must  pay,  to  the  just  sentiments  of  the  people 
at  large,  when  collected  and  expressed.  It  was  their 
purpose  and  hope  to  go  on  progressively  from  small 
to  greater  numbers,  and  from  thence  to  greater,  until 
Parliament  was  surrounded  with  the  voice  of  the 
people." 

During  March  these  delegates  had  frequent  meet- 
ings, doing  their  best  to  secure  Parliamentary  support 
for  the  prayer  of  the  Petitions.  The  existence  of  such 

1  Wyvill's  Political  Papers,  vol.   i.  2  See  State  Trials,  vol.  xxv.  p.  388. 

p.  114.' 


CHAP,  in          THE  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CROWN  115 

a  body — a  sort  of  convention,  in  fact — was  a  totally 
new  feature  in  English  politics,  and  excited  some 
objections  among  even  those  who  were  anxious  for  the 
success  of  the  Petitions.  "  Associations  and  committees 
had  produced  such  recent  effects  in  America,  and  even 
in  Ireland,  that  the  very  terms  were  become  suspicious." 

Now,  however,  they  were  imported  into  English 
political  life,  and  the  fact  marks  a  considerable  advance 
on  any  previous  agitation. 

At  last  the  eventful  day l  came  which  had  been  fixed 
by  the  House  of  Commons  for  taking  the  Petitions  into 
consideration.2 

As  a  preliminary  to  the  great  debate  of  the  evening, 
Charles  Fox  "  harangued  the  petitioners  of  Westminster 
in  the  hall  in  the  morning,  and  was  exceedingly  severe 
on  the  King  and  the  present  reign  ;  and  declared  loudly 
for  annual  Parliaments,  and  the  additional  hundred 
knights,  which  were  eagerly  adopted  by  the  assembly." 
"  The  Court  had  expected  that  Fox  would  be  attended 
to  the  House  by  a  great  mob,  and  the  Guards  were 
ordered  to  be  in  readiness ;  but  he  went  privately,  as 
usual, and  there  was  not  the  least  tumult."3 

In  a  very  full  House  Mr.  Dunning  rose.4  "  The 
Opposition  had  kept  secret  their  intended  motions," 
wrote  Horace  Walpole.  "The  very  first  made  by  Mr. 
Dunning  was  a  thundering  one.  The  words  were,  '  That 
the  influence  of  the  Crown  has  increased,  is  increasing, 

»  o' 

and  ought  to  be  diminished.'  The  walls  could  not 
believe  their  own  ears ;  they  had  not  heard  such 
language  since  they  had  a  wainscot."  5 

Scarcely  could  they  have  believed  their  own  senses 

1  The  6th  April  1780.  3  Walpole's  Journals,  vol.  ii.  p.  391. 

2  The  Petitions  were  signed,  it  was          4  Parliamentary  History,  vol.    xxi. 
said,  by  100, 000  electors.  —Parliament-      p.  342. 

ary  History,  vol.  xxi.  p.  345.  5  Walpole's  Letters,  vol.  vii.  p.  348. 


Ii6         THE  PLATFORM:    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PARTI 

when  the  motion  was  carried  by  a  majority  of  18 — 
233  voting  for  it,  and  215  against — and  immediately  on 
the  top  of  this  resolution  another  was  passed,  "  That  it 
is  the  opinion  of  this  Committee  that  it  is  the  duty  of 
this  House  to  provide,  as  far  as  may  be,  an  immediate 
and  effectual  redress  of  the  abuses  complained  of  in  the 
Petitions  presented  to  this  House  from  the  different 
counties,  cities,  and  towns  in  this  kingdom." 

Here,  indeed,  was  a  tremendous  triumph  for  the 
Platform, — a  successful  division  in  the  House  on  a 
matter  which  had  originated  out  of  the  House,  which 
had  been  fostered  into  power  by  the  force  of  the  Plat- 
form and  public  meetings,  and  against  which  the 
whole  influence  of  the  Court  and  its  hangers-on  had 
been  directed. 

"  It  was  one  of  the  curiosities  of  the  present  age  to 
see  a  Minister  in  the  minority,"  observed  a  member  just 
after  the  defeat  of  the  Government. 

"  The  exultation  and  triumph  on  one  side  of  the 
House  was  only  equalled  by  the  evident  depression 
and  dismay  which  prevailed  on  the  side  of  Administra- 
tion. .  .  .  The  system  of  the  Court  was  shaken  to -its 
foundations.  Without  doors,  the  joy  and  triumph  in 
most  parts  of  England,  as  well  in  most  of  the  counties 
that  did  not  petition  as  in  those  that  did,  was  great  and 
general."  l 

But  with  this  brilliant  success  the  high- water  mark 
was  reached. 

As  Dunning  proceeded,  a  few  days  later,  to  give 
effect  to  the  decisions  of  the  House,  in  the  next  decisive 
division  the  majority  against  Ministers  sunk  to  two.  A 
little  later,  24th  April,  Ministers  secured  a  substantial 
majority  of  51  (254 — 203)  in  another  important  divi- 

1  Annual  Register,  1780,  p.  172. 


CHAP,  in  THE   NATIONAL  ASSOCIATION  117 

sion,  and  the  danger  for  the  Government  was  past. 
It  seems  at  first  sight  difficult  to  account  for  this  sudden 
fiasco  on  the  part  of  the  petitioners,  but  Horace  Walpole 
gives  a  clear  explanation  of  the  reason  of  the  final 
triumph  of  the  Ministers.  It  is  one  which  repeated  itself 
time  after  time  on  later  occasions.  Overweening  conceit 
seems,  in  fact,  to  be  an  almost  necessary  element  in  popu- 
lar associations.  Some  fortnight  or  so  before  the  fateful 
6th  of  April  there  is  an  entry  in  his  Journals  (16th- 
17th  March):— 

"The  Committees  of  Association  began  to  give  great 
alarm.  They  voted  themselves  a  right  of  considering 
and  deciding  on  questions  pending  in  Parliament,  and 
of  censuring  or  approving  the  part  taken  by  particular 
members.  But  they  were  going  much  farther  still,  and 
were  for  engrafting  on  Petitions  two  resolutions  of  the 
highest  moment, — one,  that  there  ought  to  be  a  more 
equal,  consequently  a  new,  mode  of  representation  ;  the 
other,  that  there  should  be  frequent  Parliaments,  at  first 
triennial.  ...  In  the  first  place,  it  will  be  very  unfair 
to  engraft  new  matter  on  the  Petitions. 

"  They  who  voted  for  a  Petition  for  economy  may 
not  approve  of  a  new  mode  of  representation,  nor  of 
more  frequent  Parliaments. 

"  Next,  it  is  unwise  to  add  new  matter.  It  was  the 
necessity  of  economy,  which  every  man  felt,  that  pro- 
duced so  great  a  change  against  the  Court  and  so 
much  unanimity.  The  two  others  are  very  problematic 
questions,  and  will  sow  difference  of  opinion  and  dissen- 
sion, instead  of  compacting  unanimity,  and  drawing  in 
the  rest  of  the  nation." l 

On  the  21st  of  March  he  wrote :  "  The  Asso- 
ciations were  very  ready  to  affect  Parliamentary  airs, 

1  Journal  of  the  Reign  of  King  George  III.,  by  Horace  Walpole,  vol.  ii.  p.  378. 


n8         THE  PLATFORM:   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PARTI 

"  and  accordingly  assumed  cognisance  of  matters  actu- 
ally pending  in  Parliament.  This  has  offended 
moderate  men,  and  many  who  approved  the  Petitions 
were  alarmed  at  the  Associations,  with  good  reason,  for 
the  deputation,  composed  of  three  members  of  each 
Committee,  which  is  assembled  in  London,  are  going 
to  take  large  strides  indeed,  and  intend  to  propose  to 
their  several  counties  to  demand  annual  Parliaments, 
and  to  alter  the  mode  of  representation."1  Some  of 
the  Whigs  "  strenuously  resist  these  innovations." 

The  next  day  he  wrote :  "  I  wish  I  knew  what 
would  repair  an  extravagance  that  I  have  seen  to-day — 
Mr.  Wyvill's  manifesto.  I  never  saw  such  a  composi- 
tion of  obscurity,  bombast,  and  futility.  .  .  .  We 
shall  lose  all  the  benefit  of  the  present  spirit  by  the 
whimsies  of  men  that  have  not  common  sense,  nor  can  ex- 
press even  what  they  mean. " 2  Several  counties  promptly 
withdrew  from  connection  with  the  Central  Committee 
of  Association,3  and  in  May  we  find  Walpole  writing  to 
his  friend,  Mr.  Mason,  in  Yorkshire  :  "  The  spirit  you 
raised  (in  Yorkshire)  is  evaporated  or  split  into  a 
thousand  branches  by  mismanagement." 

Though  the  triumph  of  the  Platform  was  thus  short- 
lived, and  the  collapse  so  sudden,  still  it  was  far  from 
being  without  permanent  effect.  "  The  national  spirit 
had  shown  the  Court  that  the  Lion  was  dormant,  but  not 
toothless,"  and  the  necessity  of  increased  moderation 
and  more  careful  management  in  the  conduct  of  State 
affairs  was  inculcated  on  those  in  authority. 

1  Horace  Walpole's  Letters,  vol.  vii.       Parliament.     But  the  peers  who  had 
p.  341.  approved  the  economic  Petition  of  the 

2  Ibid.  p.  343.  first    meeting  were    not   prepared  to 
8  At    the    second    meeting    of.  the       accede  to  the  intended  measure  of  the 

county  of  York   on   the  28th  March       second.  — Wyvill's    Political    Papers, 
1780,  the  object  proposed  was  to  form      vol.  L  p.  xiv. 
an  Association  for  effecting  a  reform  of 


CHAP,  in  THE  ECONOMY  AGITATION  119 

But  the  agitation  had  a  wider  result  than  this.  The 
Platform  had  been  again  tried  as  the  mouthpiece  of 
popular  opinion  outside  Parliament,  and  had  again 
proved  itself  of  the  utmost  service ;  and  the  engrafting 
on  it  of  a  system  of  organisation  had  enhanced  its 
power,  giving  it  a  cohesion  and  unity  of  direction  which 
added  immensely  to  its  strength. 

Nor  were  the  results  of  the  work  of  the  Platform  in 
this  agitation  confined  to  the  agreement  in  favour  of 
the  Petitions.  The  speeches  which  had  been  made  at 
the  numerous  meetings,  and  which  were  pretty  fully 
reported  in  the  newspapers,  spread  far  and  wide 
throughout  the  country  a  fuller  knowledge  of  political 
principles.  They  established  on  a  far  stronger  and 
broader  basis  than  ever  before  the  right  of  publicly 
discussing  and  criticising  the  measures  and  conduct  of 
the  Government ;  and  both  those  who  participated  in  the 
meetings,  and  those  who  heard  or  read  the  reports  of 
the  speeches,  having  been  roused  from  comparative 
inanition  to  a  proper  sense  of  their  status  and  rights  in 
the  Constitution  of  the  country,  and  having  once  tasted 
the  pleasures  of  political  excitement,  were  never  likely 
to  sink  back  into  a  state  of  lethargic  longsufFering  or 
fatalistic  indifference. 

Scarcely  had  the  excitement  of  this  struggle  some- 
what subsided  when  a  most  exciting  and  impressive 
event  occurred,  the  discredit  of  which  was  at  once  laid 
to  the  charge  of  the  Platform,  and  which  was  fastened 
on  as  exhibiting  the  danger  of  public  speech  and  public 
meeting. 

Hume,  in  his  Essay  on  the  Liberty  of  the  Press, 
incidentally  refers  to  the  danger  : l  "  We  need  not  dread 
from  this  liberty  (of  the  Press)  such  ill  consequences  as 

1  Hume's  Essays,  fourth  edition,  p.  11. 


120         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

"  followed  from  the  harangues  of  the  popular  demagogues 
of  Athens  and  tribunes  of  Rome.  A  man  reads  a  book 
or  pamphlet  alone,  and  coolly.  There  is  none  present 
from  whom  he  can  catch  the  passion  by  contagion.  He 
is  not  hurried  away  by  the  force  and  energy  of  action. 
And  should  he  be  wrought  up  to  never  so  seditious  a 
humour,  there  is  no  violent  resolution  presented  to  him 
by  which  he  can  immediately  vent  his  passion.  The 
liberty  of  the  Press,  therefore,  however  abused,  can 
scarcely  ever  excite  popular  tumults  or  rebellion." 

The  liberty  of  the  Platform,  or  free  verbal  discussion 
and  deliberation,  was  as  yet  only  associated,  in  even 
thoughtful  minds,  with  the  violent  harangues  of  Athenian 
demagogues  and  Roman  tribunes ;  and  that  popular 
tumults  and  violence  must  ensue  from  public  meetings, 
and  public  speeches,  was,  as  we  shall  find,  the  uniform 
view  of  the  Platform  held  by  a  succession  of  even  great 
statesmen.  Even  the  right  of  "  petitioning  "  was  re- 
garded with  suspicion  and  ill-concealed  jealousy  and 
dislike,  as  tending  dangerously  towards  government  by 
the  populace. 

In  May  1778  an  Act  of  Parliament  had  been  passed 
repealing  an  Act  of  William  III.'s  reign  which  imposed 
certain  disabilities  on  Roman  Catholics  in  England.  In 
the  following  winter  the  Scotch,  believing  the  Act  was 
about  to  be  extended  to  Scotland,  formed  several  local 
associations  to  resist  concession  to  the  Roman  Catholics 
there. 

These  associations  did  everything  in  their  power  to 
inflame  the  zeal  and  arouse  the  bigotry  of  the  people ; 
but  as  the  Platform  was  unknown  in  Scotland  at  the 
time,  the  work  was  done  by  pamphlets  and  hand-bills, 
and  by  the  pulpit. 

In  the  following  year  serious  anti-Catholic  riots  took 


CHAP,  in  THE  GORDON  RIOTS  121 

place  in  Glasgow  and  in  Edinburgh.  Houses  and 
chapels  were  burnt  down  and  destroyed,  and  Catholics, 
and  even  Protestant  sympathisers  with  them,  had  to  fly 
for  their  lives,  the  local  authorities  almost  conniving  at 
these  proceedings.  Soon  afterwards  a  Protestant  Asso- 
ciation was  formed  in  England  to  obtain  the  repeal  of 
the  objectionable  Act,  and  to  foster  a  belief  that  the 
concessions  made  to  the  Koman  Catholics  would  be 
attended  with  immediate  danger  to  the  State,  and  to 
the  Protestant  religion. 

In  November  1779  Lord  George  Gordon,  at  that 
time  a  member  of  the  House  of  Commons,  was  elected 
President  of  the  Association,  and  several  public  meetings 
were  held  in  London — 1800  persons  being  present  at 
one  of  them, — at  which  speeches  were  made,  tending  to 
raise  a  spirit  of  intolerance  and  fanaticism  in  the  minds 
of  the  hearers. 

By  May  "  this  mad  lord,"  as  Horace  Walpole  very 
truly  calls  him,  determined  on  more  energetic  action ; 
and  on  Monday,  29th  May,  a  meeting  was  held  at 
Coachmaker's  Hall,  pursuant  to  public  advertisement, 
in  order  to  consider  the  mode  of  presenting  a  Petition 
to  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  subject  of  the  Act. 
Lord  George  Gordon  took  the  chair,  and  delivered  a 
long  and  most  inflammatory  harangue.1  He  endeavoured 
to  persuade  his  hearers  of  the  rapid  and  alarming  pro- 
gress that  popery  was  making  in  this  kingdom ;  and  he 
proceeded  to  observe  that  the  only  way  to  stop  it  was 
going  in  a  firm,  manly,  and  resolute  manner  to  the 
House  and  showing  their  representatives  that  they  were 
determined  to  preserve  their  religious  freedom  with 
their  lives ;  that,  for  his  part,  he  would  run  all  hazards 
with  the  people  ;  and  if  the  people  were  too  lukewarm 

1  See  Annual  Register,  1780,  p.  190,  ct  seq. 


122         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

to  run  all  hazards  with  him  when  their  conscience  and 
their  country  called  them  forth,  they  might  get  another 
president ;  for  he  would  tell  them  candidly,  that  he  was 
not  a  lukewarm  man  himself,  and  that  if  they  meant  to 
spend  their  time  in  mock  debate  and  idle  opposition 
they  might  get  another  leader.  He  then  proposed  that 
the  whole  body  of  the  Protestant  Association  should 
attend  in  St.  George's  Fields  on  the  next  Friday,  to 
accompany  him  to  the  House  of  Commons  on  the 
delivery  of  the  Protestant  Petition.  He  further  informed 
them  that  if  less  than  20,000  of  his  fellow -citizens 
attended  him  on  that  day  he  would  not  present  their 
Petition ;  and  for  the  better  observance  of  order,  he 
said,  they  should  arrange  themselves  in  four  divisions ; 
and  that  they  might  know  their  friends  from  their  enemies, 
he  added  that  every  real  Protestant  and  friend  of  the 
Petition  should  come  with  blue  cockades  in  their 
hats. 

On  the  Friday  following,  accordingly,  a  large  multi- 
tude gathered  at  St.  George's  Fields — some  30,000  to 
40,000  persons  at  the  very  lowest  computation.  Thence 
they  proceeded  to  the  Houses  of  Parliament  with  the 
Petition,  which  had  been  signed,  it  was  said,  by  some 
120,000  people.  With  no  one  to  offer  them  the  slightest 
resistance,  or  no  force  of  any  sort  to  keep  even  a  vestige 
of  order — for  the  Ministers  had  made  no  preparations 
whatever  against  disorder, — they  forced  their  way  into 
the  passages  and  lobby  of  the  Houses  of  Parliament,  and 
becoming  excited  and  violent,  assaulted  several  members 
of  both  Houses,  and  generally  intimidated  the  Parlia- 
ment. With  much  difficulty,  and  not  without  grave 
risk,  was  this  crisis  surmounted  ;  but  almost  immediately 
afterwards  the  most  desperate  riots  followed — first  directed 
against  Catholics,  or  Protestant  sympathisers  with  them, 


CHAP,  in  THE  GORDON  RIOTS  123 

and  then,  as  the  Government  appeared  to  have  abdicated 
all  its  functions,  against  everybody  and  everything  in- 
discriminately. 

Day  by  day  the  riots  increased  in  intensity. 
"  Never,"  says  the  Annual  Register,  "  did  the  metro- 
polis, in  any  known  age,  exhibit  such  a  dreadful 
spectacle  of  calamity  and  horror;  or  experience  such 
real  danger,  terror,  and  distress,  as  on  the  day  and 
night  of  the  7th.  It  is  said  that  it  was  beheld  blazing 
in  thirty-six  different  places  from  one  spot.  Some  of 
these  conflagrations  were  of  such  a  magnitude  as  to  be 
truly  tremendous.  .  .  .  Those  who  were  on  the  spot 
or  in  the  vicinity  say  that  the  present  darkness,  the 
gleam  of  the  distant  fires,  the  dreadful  shouts  in  different 
quarters  of  the  rioters,  the  groans  of  the  dying,  and  the 
heavy  regular  platoon-firing  of  the  soldiers  formed,  all 
together,  a  scene  so  terrific  and  tremendous  as  no 
description  or  even  imagination  could  possibly  reach. 
.  .  .  The  metropolis  presented,  in  many  places,  the 
image  of  a  city  recently  stormed  and  sacked." 1 

"Nothing  ever  surpassed  the  abominable  behaviour 
of  the  ruffian  apostle  who  preached  up  this  storm,"  .  .  . 
wrote  Horace  Walpole.2  "  The  frantic  incendiary  ran 
backwards  and  forwards  naming  names  for  slaughter  to 
the  mob." 

And  Burke,  who  was  present  at  the  time,  has  thus 
described  this  occurrence  :  "  In  the  year  1780  there  were 
found  in  this  nation  men  deluded  enough  on  pretences  of 
zeal  and  piety  to  make  a  desperate  attempt  which  would 
have  consumed  all  the  glory  and  power  of  this  country 
in  the  flames  of  London,  and  buried  all  law,  order,  and 
religion,  under  the  ruins  of  the  metropolis  of  the  Pro- 
testant world.  .  .  .  All  the  time  this  horrid  scene  was 

1  Annual  Register,  1780,  p.  194.  2  Walpole's  Letters,  vol.  vii.  p.  378. 


124         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

"  acting,  the  wicked  instigators  of  this  unhappy  multi- 
tude continued  without  interruption,  pity,  or  remorse,  to 
blow  up  the  blind  rage  of  the  populace  with  a  continued 
blast  of  pestilential  libels,  which  infected  the  very  air 
we  breathed  in.  The  main  drift  of  all  these  libels,  and 
all  the  riots,  was  to  force  Parliament  (to  persuade  us 
was  hopeless)  into  an  act  of  national  perfidy  which  has 
no  example." 

For  nearly  a  week  the  rioting  and  burning  and 
plundering  continued — jails  were  fired  and  destroyed, 
and  the  prisoners  let  loose. 

So  dilatory  were  the  Ministers  in  taking  measures  to 
suppress  the  rioting,  that  they  laid  themselves  open  to 
the  charge  of  "  a  meditated  encouragement  to  this 
fanatic  tumult,  in  order  to  discountenance  the  Associa- 
tion, which  had  more  serious  objects  in  view,  and  to 
render  odious  and  contemptible  all  popular  interposition 
in  affairs  of  State." 

At  last,  however,  the  King  himself  intervened ; 
vigorous  military  action  was  taken ;  and  after  some 
300  lives  or  more  had  been  lost,  order  was  restored. 
The  slower,  but  none  the  less  sure,  process  of  the  civil 
law  followed ;  many  of  the  rioters  were  tried  and  exe- 
cuted, and  the  lesson  was  taught,  in  letters  of  life's 
blood,  that  violent  methods  of  seeking  the  enforcement 
of  particular  views  could  not  be  tolerated. 

For  many  a  long  year  afterwards  this  unfortunate 
episode  was  made  political  capital  of  against  any  popu- 
lar movement,  and  more  especially  against  the  use  of 
the  Platform.  It  was  said  that  the  riots  were  the 
offspring  of  the  Petition,  and  the  lamentable  conse- 
quences of  this  particular  Petition  and  Association  were 
deemed  good  ground  for  discouraging  all  Petitions  and 
Associations.  It  is  true  that  the  violent  outrages 


CHAP,  in  THE  GORDON  RIOTS  125 

perpetrated  by  the  rioters  followed  the  action  of  a 
political  association,  which  had,  in  part,  furthered  its 
aims  by  means  of  meetings  and  speeches ;  and  that  the 
immediate  cause  of  the  horrible  outrages  was  the  direct 
incitement  of  the  President  of  the  Association,  in  a 
speech  which  was  published  in  the  newspapers,  to  a 
course  which  was  fraught  with  danger,  and  which  might 
lead,  as  it  did,  to  most  disastrous  results.  But  it  was 
in  the  most  eminent  degree  unfair  to  use  this  event,  as 
so  many  have  done,  as  a  final  and  decisive  argument 
against  the  Platform.  In  the  first  place,  the  riots  would 
never  have  occurred  except  for  the  criminal  negligence, 
if  not  connivance,  of  the  Government.  Any,  even 
moderate  precautions  would  have  prevented  them,  or  at 
any  rate  have  at  once  checked  them.  Where  no  effort 
is  made  to  maintain  order,  order  will  not  be  maintained, 
even  though  no  Platform  incitement  to  disorder  be 
given.  The  exercise  of  free  speech  will  sometimes  be 
abused ;  but  it  would  be  folly  to  attempt  to  silence  all 
speech  on  that  account ;  that  is  the  wrong  way  of  meeting 
the  evils  of  such  abuse,  and  that  was  the  line  taken  by  the 
governing  authorities  of  that  day  and  time.  We  must 
ever  discount  their  views,  and  those  of  many  of  their 
successors,  on  this  somewhat  thorny  subject,  with  the 
reflection  that  they  had  the  deepest  interest  in  main- 
taining the  existing  order  of  things ;  and  that  in  that 
existing  order  there  were  many  things  which  could  not 
bear  discussion,  or  investigation,  or  exposure  to  the 
public  gaze.  We  cannot,  in  fact,  consider  them  im- 
partial authorities  in  anything  appertaining  to  the 
Platform  or  free  discussion. 


CHAPTER  IV 


MANY  years  were  to  elapse  before  another  great  out- 
burst of  Platform  activity  took  place,  and  the  progress 
of  the  Platform  from  this  time  down  to  the  eve  of  that 
tremendous  convulsion — the  French  Revolution — is  to  be 
traced  in  its  action  at  the  general  elections  of  1780,  of 
1784,  in  the  incidents  of  the  continuance  of  the  move- 
ment set  on  foot  by  the  Yorkshire  Association  for 
economic  reform,  and  in  the  movement  which  was  now 
about  to  take  more  definite  shape  and  cohesion  in 
favour  of  Parliamentary  reform. 

The  immediate  effect  of  the  Gordon  riots  had  been 
to  strengthen  the  position  of  the  Government,  for  how- 
ever miserable  had  been  the  incapacity  exhibited  by  the 
Ministers  in  dealing  with  them,  the  scenes  of  horror 
which  had  been  witnessed,  and  the  enormities  which 
had  been  perpetrated,  inspired  a  greater  dread  of 
popular  meetings  than  condemnation  of  the  Ministry.1 
This  sudden  antipathy  to  public  demonstrations  ex- 
tended to  the  county  meetings,  petitions,  and  all  forms 
of  association,  and  consequently  to  all  applications  for 
redress  of  grievances,  and  schemes  •  for  a  reform  in  the 
representation  of  the  Commons  House  of  Parliament. 

1  See  The  Annual  Register,  1781,  p.  137. 


CHAP,  iv  THE  GENERAL  ELECTION  OF  1780  127 

Parliament  was  nearing  the  end  of  its  septennial 
life.  "  There  was  every  reason  to  expect,"  said  the 
writer  in  The  Annual  Register,  "  that,  in  the  present 
state  of  things,  and  disposition  of  the  people,  the 
elections  would  go  greatly  in  favour  of  the  Court.  A 
dissolution  was  accordingly  determined  upon ;  but  the 
design  was  kept  concealed  in  the  most  profound  secrecy. 
.  .  .  The  Proclamation  for  dissolving  the  Parliament 
operated  like  a  thunderclap,  with  respect  to  suddenness 
and  surprise,  .  .  .  the  shortness  of  the  time  allotted  for 
the  elections  increased  the  difficulties  and  disadvantages 
to  those  who  were  at  a  distance  from  their  boroughs  or 
interests,  and  who  had  taken  no  previous  measures  of 
security.  From  these  and  from  the  other  causes  we 
have  mentioned,  the  elections  went  much  in  favour  of 
the  Court,  and  several  of  the  most  popular  members, 
whose  public  conduct  seemed  to  receive  the  general 
approbation  of  their  constituents  were,  notwithstanding, 
thrown  out  of  their  seats." 

"  One  hundred  and  thirteen  new  men  obtained  seats 
in  Parliament.  The  poverty  of  the  times,  operating 
along  with  the  general  hopelessness  which  now  prevailed, 
that  any  opposition  in  Parliament  would  be  capable  of 
producing  a  beneficial  alteration  in  the  conduct  of  public 
affairs,  had  both  together  so  powerful  an  effect,  that 
candidates  were  not  to  be  found  who  would  support  the 
usual  expensive  contests  of  the  counties.  No  general 
election,  perhaps  for  a  century,  produced  so  little  expense 
in  that  respect.  Several  members  of  the  late  Parliament, 
who  were  tired  of  a  constant  fruitless  attendance  and 
opposition,  either  determined  to  retire  entirely  from 
public  business,  or  grew  very  indifferent  as  to  the  event 
of  their  elections.  The  general  venality  which  now 
appeared  among  the  electors,  and  that  contempt  of 


128         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

"  their  own  declarations  and  resolutions,  as  well  as  of  all 
past  faithful  service  which  it  produced,  could  not  fail 
highly  to  disgust  many,  and  to  render  them  still  more 
hopeless  of  public  affairs." l 

Such  is  the  account  of  this  election  given  by  The 
Annual  Register. 

The  deep  despondency  which  was  felt  by  some  of 
the  popular  party  finds  eloquent  and  pathetic  expression 
in  the  written  address  issued  by  Sir  George  Savile  to 
the  electors  of  Yorkshire.2 

"The  satisfaction  and  honour  of  attending  your 
business  has  ever  overbalanced  the  labour ;  but  my 
attendance  during  the  last  Parliament  has  been  some- 
thing worse  than  laborious ;  it  has  been  discouraging, 
grievous,  and  painful.  .  .  . 

"  I  return  to  you,  baffled  and  dispirited,  and  I  am 
sorry  that  truth  obliges  me  to  add,  with  hardly  a  ray  of 
hope  of  seeing  any  change  in  the  miserable  course  of 
public  calamities. 

"  On  this  melancholy  day  of  account,  in  rendering  up 
to  you  my  trust,  I  deliver  to  you  your  share  of  a  country, 
maimed  and  weakened,  its  treasure  lavished  and  mis- 
spent, its  honours  faded,  and  its  conduct  the  laughing- 
stock of  Europe  ;  our  nation  in  a  manner  without  allies 
or  friends,  except  such  as  we  have  hired  to  destroy  our 
fellow-subjects,  and  to  ravage  a  country,  in  which  we 
once  claimed  an  invaluable  share.  I  return  to  you  some 
of  your  principal  privileges  impeached  and  mangled. 
And,  lastly,  I  leave  you,  as  I  conceive,  at  this  hour  and 
moment  fully,  effectually,  and  absolutely,  under  the  dis- 
cretion and  power  of  a  military  force  which  is  to  act 
without  waiting  for  the  authority  of  the  civil  magistrate. 

1  The     Government     itself     spent       North,  vol.  ii.  pp.  421-427. 
£53,000  on  this  election. — See  Corre-          -  See  The  Leeds  Intelligencer,  12th 
spondence  between  George  III.  and  Lord       September  1780. 


CHAP,  iv  THE  GENERAL  ELECTION  OF  1780  129 

.  .  .  But  under  all  these  disheartening  circumstances  I 
could  yet  entertain  a  cheerful  hope,  and  undertake  again 
the  commission  with  alacrity,  as  well  as  zeal,  if  I  could 
see  any  effectual  steps  taken  to  remove  the  original  cause 
of  the  mischief.  Then  ivould  there  be  a  hope.  Till 
the  purity  of  the  constituent  body,  and  thereby  that  of 
the  representative,  be  restored,  there  is  NONE." 

It  appears  that  there  were  contests  in  only  three 
counties  in  the  whole  of  England.  In  the  boroughs, 
however,  there  was  an  increase — 59  borough  seats  having 
been  contested.1  The  newspapers  of  the  time  supply 
some  further  details  about  the  election  which,  from  the 
Platform  point  of  view,  are  interesting.  The  Gazetteer 
gives  us  a  glimpse  of  Fox : 2  "At  a  meeting  under  the 
portico  of  St.  Paul's,  Co  vent  Garden,  for  the  purpose  of 
electing  representatives  to  serve  the  city  of  Westminster 
in  Parliament,  Mr.  C.  Fox  rose  and  depicted  the  losses 
and  degeneracy  of  our  affairs  in  the  strongest  colours ; 
the  knavery  and  the  folly  of  the  authors  of  our  calami- 
ties with  the  most  poignant  satire.  'Who,'  said  he, 
'  are  these  Ministers  that  presume  to  impose  a  man  upon 
you  ?  If  a  Pitt  in  the  height  of  the  glory  of  his  admin- 
istration had  deigned  to  make  such  an  attempt,  his 
conduct  would  have  been  unjustifiable ;  but  for  these 
men  who  have  brought  this  country  to  ruin  and  bank- 
ruptcy to  dare  to  make  so  impudent  an  attempt  is  to 
offer  you  the  highest  insult.'  His  great  exertions  made 
him  hoarse,  and  he  recruited  himself  by  drinking  once 
or  twice,  amidst  the  acclamations  of  the  multitude." 

It  is  also  noteworthy  that  a  larger  number  of 
speeches  are  reported  at  this  election  than  at  previous 
ones,  and  more  elections  are  referred  to  at  which 

1  See  The  Register  of  Parliamentary          2  See   The  Gazetteer,  8th  September 
Contested  Elections,})?  H.  S.  Smith,  3  vols.       1780. 


130         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

speeches  were  stated  to  have  been  made.  The  speeches 
at  the  elections  for  London  city,  Westminster,  Surrey, 
and  Middlesex,  are  reported  at  some  length,  and  there 
were  a  great  many  of  them,  owing  to  the  length  of  time 
the  polling  lasted. 

From  a  criticism  in  The  Morning  Chronicle a  it  may 
safely  be  inferred  that  greater  public  attention  was 
beginning  to  be  paid  to  election  speeches.  The  article 
is  worth  quoting  some  extracts  from.  "  Mr.  Burke's 
speech  to  the  electors  of  Bristol  was,"  says  the  critic, 
"  a  fine  piece  of  eloquence,  though  it  had  a  small  tinge 
of  the  predicateur  in  its  colouring. 

"  Mr.  Lascelles  speaks  to  his  late  constituents  (York- 
shire) with  the  bluntness  and  sincerity  of  an  honest 
Englishman  who,  feeling  in  his  own  mind  no  wish  to 
impose  shackles  on  those  who  are  to  elect  him,  disdains 
to  put  on  fetters  himself,  and  fairly  tells  them  he  will 
go  to  Parliament  free,  or  not  at  all. 

"  Mr.  Sheridan  uses  the  short  phrase  of  a  man  deter- 
mined to  pursue  a  purpose  upon  which  he  has  already 
formed  his  opinion. 

"  Mr.  Baker,  with  an  honesty  rarely  exampled,  after 
he  is  crowned  with  success,  declares  he  is  determined  to 
obtain  justice  for  his  constituents  in  a  matter  which  no 
longer  refers  to  his  interest ;  and  Mr.  Selwyn,  without  a 
pun,  and  contrary  to  his  character,  in  a  style  ires 
furieuse,  tells  the  freemen  of  Gloucester  his  mind  and 
the  cause  of  his  resentment. 

"In  London,  Alderman  Clarke  has  spoken  a  very 
decent,  manly  language,  while  Alderman  Sawbridge  has 
blubbered  like  a  schoolboy." 

A  good  deal  of  interest  was  evidently  taken  in  some 
of  the  elections;  thus  at  Epsom,  the  polling-place  for 

1  See  The  Morniiig  Chronicle,  21st  September  1780. 


CHAP,  iv  THE  GENERAL  ELECTION  OF  1780  131 

Surrey,1  "  the  crowds  were  so  great  in  all  the  avenues 
leading  to  the  hustings  by  the  different  friends  of  the 
separate  candidates  who  listed  under  their  respective 
banners,  colours,  etc.,  that  there  was  no  possibility  of 
passing  the  streets  with  safety." 

At  Windsor,  we  are  told,2  "  the  King  was  making 
the  strongest  interest  against  Admiral  Keppel." 

At  Coventry  and  at  Bristol  there  were  serious  riots. 
But  this  election  at  Bristol  was  memorable  in  a  worthier 
and  better  way  than  rioting  —  for  here,  once  more, 
Edmund  Burke  was  to  give  an  example  to  all  future 
time  of  the  highest  style  of  election  Platform  oratory. 
He  had  displeased  many  of  his  constituents  by  certain 
views  he  had  supported  in  the  House  of  Commons  since 
he  had  been  elected  their  representative,  and  he  availed 
himself  of  the  Platform  as  the  proper  means  of  meeting 
his  constituents  and  justifying  himself  before  them. 
The  meeting  was  at  the  Guildhall  in  Bristol.  His 
speech  was  a  masterpiece — a  flawless  election  speech  of 
the  highest  type — "  Perhaps,"  it  was  said  by  a  great 
judge,  "the  finest  piece  of  oratory  in  our  language." 
It  covered  the  whole  field  of  politics  of  the  time ;  it 
went  down  to  the  great  underlying  principles  of  the 
questions  which  had  engaged  the  attention  of  Parlia- 
ment during  the  six  years  of  its  existence ;  and  he 
addressed  his  audience  in  a  manner  even  more  deferen- 
tial than  he  would  have  addressed  the  House  of  Com- 
mons itself. 

One  is  tempted  to  quote  passage  after  passage 
from  it. 

"  Gentlemen,"  he  exclaims  in  one  part  of  it,  "  it  is 
not  your  fond  desires  or  mine  that  can  alter  the  nature 
of  things ;  by  contending  against  which,  what  have  we 

1  The  Gazetteer,  12th  September  1780.     2  This  on  Horace  Walpole's  authority. 


132         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

"  got,  or  ever  shall  get,  but  defeat  or  shame  ?  I  did  not 
obey  your  instructions ;  no,  I  conformed  to  the  instruc- 
tions of  truth  and  nature,  and  maintained  your  interest 
against  your  opinions  with  a  constancy  that  became 
me.  A  representative  worthy  of  you  ought  to  be  a 
person  of  stability.  I  am  to  look  indeed  to  your 
opinions,  but  to  such  opinions  as  you  and  I  must  have 
five  years  hence.  I  was  not  to  look  to  the  flash  of  the 
day.  I  knew  that  you  chose  me,  in  my  place,  along 
with  others,  to  be  a  pillar  of  the  State,  and  not  a 
weathercock  on  the  top  of  the  edifice,  exalted  for  my 
levity  and  versatility,  and  of  no  use  but  to  indicate  the 
shiftings  of  every  fashionable  gale." 

And  then,  as  he  came  to  the  end  of  his  speech,  he 
said :  "  Gentlemen,  I  have  had  my  day.  I  can  never 
sufficiently  express  my  gratitude  to  you  for  having  set 
me  in  a  place  wherein  I  could  lend  the  slightest  help 
to  great  and  laudable  designs.  If  I  have  had  my  share 
in  any  measure  giving  quiet  to  private  property  and 
private  conscience ;  if  by  my  vote  I  have  aided  in 
securing  to  families  the  best  possession — peace  ;  if  I 
have  joined  in  reconciling  kings  to  their  subjects,  and 
subjects  to  their  prince  ;  if  I  have  assisted  to  loosen 
the  foreign  holdings  of  the  citizen,  and  taught  him  to 
look  for  his  protection  to  the  laws  of  his  country,  and 
for  his  comfort  to  the  goodwill  of  his  countrymen  ;  if  I 
have  thus  taken  my  part  with  the  best  of  men  in  the 
best  of  their  actions,  I  can  shut  the  book.  I  might 
wish  to  read  a  page  or  two  more,  but  this  is  enough  for 
my  measure — I  have  not  lived  in  vain. 

"  And  now,  gentlemen,  on  this  serious  day,  when  I 
come,  as  it  were,  to  make  up  my  account  with  you,  let 
me  take  to  myself  some  degree  of  honest  pride  on  the 
nature  of  the  charges  that  are  against  me.  I  do  not 


CHAP,  iv     BURKE  ON  THE  ELECTORAL  PLATFORM  133 

here  stand  before  you  accused  of  venality  or  of  neglect 
of  duty.  It  is  not  said  that,  in  the  long  period  of  my 
service,  I  have  in  a  single  instance  sacrificed  the 
slightest  of  your  interests  to  my  ambition  or  to  my 
fortune.  It  is  not  alleged  that  to  gratify  any  anger  or 
revenge  of  my  own,  or  of  my  party,  I  have  had  a  share 
in  wronging  or  oppressing  any  description  of  men,  or 
any  one  man  in  any  description.  No  !  the  charges 
against  me  are  all  of  one  kind  :  that  I  have  pushed  the 
principles  of  general  justice  and  benevolence  too  far, 
farther  than  a  cautious  policy  would  warrant,  and 
farther  than  the  opinions  of  many  would  go  along  with 
me;  In  every  accident  which  may  happen  through  life, 
in  pain,  in  sorrow,  in  depression,  and  distress,  I  will 
call  to  mind  this  accusation,  and  be  comforted. 

"  Gentlemen,  I  submit  the  whole  to  your  judg- 
ment." 

The  meeting  he  addressed,  impressed  by  the  irre- 
sistible power  of  his  speech,  re-adopted  him  as  the 
candidate ;  but  some  days  after,  finding  the  tide  of 
prejudice  running  too  strong  against  him,  he  retired — 
retired  with  a  speech  from  the  hustings  to  the  assembled 
electors.  "It  has  been  usual,"  he  said,  "for  a  candi- 
date who  declines  to  take  his  leave  by  a  letter  to  the 
sheriffs,  but  I  received  your  trust  in  the  face  of  day, 
and  in  the  face  of  day  I  accept  your  dismission." 

Once  more  had  Burke  endeavoured  to  raise  the 
election  Platform  to  a  standard  little  contemplated  by 
other  politicians  or  even  statesmen  of  the  time — Fox 
perhaps  alone  excepted. 

Sir  G.  Savile  once  said  that  while  the  existing  system 
of  representation  continued,  general  elections  could  be 
looked  on  in  no  other  light  than  so  many  septennial 
fairs  and  markets  ;  but  here  was  one  man,  the  greatest 


134         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

orator  of  his  time,  endeavouring  by  precept  and  example 
to  raise  the  whole  tone  of  an  election.  That  example, 
shining  far  down  into  time,  was  too  illustrious  not  to 
have  had  many  followers,  and  so,  as  years  went  by,  his 
influence  made  itself  strongly  felt. 

The  new  Parliament  assembled  on  the  31st  October.1 
Horace  Walpole2  sums  up  its  aspect  in  the  phrase,  "  il  ne 
valoit  pas  la  peine  de  changer."  "There  are  several 
new  members,  but  no  novelty  in  style  or  totality  of 
votes.  The  Court  may  have  what  number  it  chooses  to 
buy." 

Soon  after  it  met,  there  was  added  to  its  members 
William  Pitt,  without  either  speechifying  or  Platforming 
on  his  part,  as  we  see  from  a  letter  to  his  mother.3 

"  I  have  seen  Sir  James  Lowther  .  .  .  Appleby  is 
the  place  I  am  to  represent,  and  the  election  will  be 
made  (probably  in  a  week  or  ten  days)  without  my 
having  any  trouble,  or  even  visiting  my  constituents." 

The  general  election,  though  dispiriting  to  the 
popular  party,  had  not  extinguished  them,  and  the 
Convention  of  the  Associated  Counties,  or  rather  as 
many  of  the  counties  as  remained  after  the  change  of 
opinion  that  the  riots  in  London  had  effected,  deter- 
mined to  bring  the  subject  of  their  grievances  before 
the  new  Parliament.  Some  few  meetings  were  held  in 
the  counties  that  still  adhered  to  the  movement,  and 
on  the  2d  April  1781  a  Petition  was  presented  to  the 
House  of  Commons  from  the  delegates  of  the  counties 
of  York,  Surrey,  Hertford,  Huntingdon,  Middlesex, 
Essex,  Kent,  Devon,  and  Nottingham,  and  of  the  city 
of  Westminster.4  The  Petition,  beginning  very  much 

1  1780.  »  Earl  Stanhope's  Life  of  Pitt,  vol.  i. 

a  Walpole's    Letters,    vol.     vii.    p.       p.  47. 

458.  *  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxii. 

p.  99. 


CHAP,  iv  PETITION  FROM  DELEGATES  135 

as  the  Yorkshire  one  had  done,  set  forth  "  that  this 
country  had  been  engaged  for  several  years  in  a  most 
expensive  and  unfortunate  war ;  that  many  of  our 
valuable  colonies  had  declared  themselves  independent ; 
that  the  consequences  had  been  a  large  addition  to  the 
national  debt,  a  heavy  accumulation  of  taxes,  a  rapid 
decline  of  trade,  manufactures,  and  rents ;  that  much 
public  money  had  been  improvidently  squandered ;  that 
there  were  sinecure  places,  exorbitant  salaries,  and 
pensions  ;  and  that  the  House  of  Commons  had  resolved 
that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  House  to  provide,  as  far 
as  might  be,  an  immediate  and  effectual  redress  of  the 
evils  complained  of;  that  nothing  had  been  done,  and 
they  therefore  besought  the  House  to  proceed  to  inquire 
into  and  redress  those  grievances,  and  to  deal  with  the 
growing  influence  of  the  Crown,  and  to  economise 
expenditure."  But  the  new  Parliament  was  not  favour- 
ably disposed  to  Petitions  for  reforms  or  any  other  out- 
come of  the  Platform.  One  member  said  he  "  had 
opposed,  within  and  without,  every  attempt  to  form 
Associations  and  Committees,  which  he  held  to  be  both 
dangerous  and  illegal,"  and  declared  that  "every  scheme 
for  reformation  should  originate  in  the  House,  which 
contained  the  only  true  delegates  of  the  people." 

The  Solicitor -General  for  Scotland  took  a  more 
technical  line.  He  asserted  that  "  As  freeholders  the 
Petitioners  were  represented  in  Parliament,1  and  might 
have  had  their  alleged  grievances  laid  before  the  House 
in  constitutional  form  by  their  respective  representatives. 
It  was,  he  thought,  the  duty  of  Parliament  to  suppress 
Associations,  by  preventing  their  resolutions  and  views 
from  taking  effect." 

The    Solicitor-General    for    England    "  totally    con- 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxii.  p.  161. 


136         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

"demned  associations,  delegations,  and  committees."  He 
thought  associations  were  attended  with  danger,  "  be- 
cause, when  such  associations  were  entered  into,  when 
the  minds  of  men  were  agitated  and  carried  forward  to 
objects  of  reformation,  no  man  could  say  where  it  would 
end.  National  ferment,  once  created,  was  not  easily 
quieted,  and  the  ablest  men  might  be  overborne  by  that 
power  to  which  they  had  undesignedly  given  an  exist- 
ence, in  order  to  promote  the  most  beneficial  purposes, 
but  which,  in  its  exercise,  might  be  employed,  not  to 
the  maintenance,  preservation,  and  improvement  of  the 
Constitution,  but  to  its  utter  subversion." l 

Dunning,  who  happily  had  survived  the  general 
election,  replied  effectively  to  these  official  views.  As 
regards  the  Associations  which  had  lately  been  formed 
in  the  most  respectable  counties  of  England,  "  their 
greatest  enemy  could  not  charge  them  with  uproar,  or 
even  with  heat ;  their  proceedings  had  been  grave, 
deliberate,  and  orderly.  They  had  met  to  exercise  a 
lawful  right :  that  of  petitioning  their  representatives 
in  Parliament ;  and  in  doing  this,  they  had  observed 
the  most  steady  decorum,  the  strictest  regard  to  public 
tranquillity. " 

The  motion  that  the  Petition  be  referred  to  a  Com- 
mittee of  the  whole  House  was  of  course  rejected  by  a 
large  majority  (212 — 135).  This  repulse  may  be  con- 
sidered as  ending  the  first  part  of  the  work  of  the 
Central  Committee  or  Convention  of  the  County  Asso- 
ciations ;  for,  by  this  time,  many  of  the  counties  had 
withdrawn  from  it,  other  questions  of  deep  moment 
monopolised  the  attention  of  Parliament,  and  other 
subjects  of  grave  import  absorbed  the  attention  of  the 
country.  But  the  remaining  deputies  or  delegates  from 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxii.  p.  191,  1781.  2  Ibid.  p.  198. 


CHAP,  iv  MEETINGS  IN  LONDON  137 

the  counties  continued  to  meet  in  London,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  turn  their  attention  to  the  subject  which  had 
caused  the  split  in  the  movement,  Parliamentary 
reform. 

One  little  stir  of  life  in  the  Platform  in  1781  is  thus 
recorded  in  Horace  Walpole's  Journal * — 

On  the  4th  December  the  Livery  of  London  had  a 
large  meeting,  and  voted  "  an  admirable  and  most 
severe  remonstrance  to  the  King  against  the  continua- 
tion of  the  American  war,  which  they  said  the  Speech 
threatened.  They  besought  the  King  to  remove  both 
his  public  and  private  counsellors,  and  used  these 
stunning  and  memorable  words :  '  Your  armies  are 
captured ;  the  wonted  superiority  of  your  navies  is 
annihilated  ;  your  dominions  are  lost.' ' 

And  on  the  10th  there  was  "a  great  meeting  of 
Westminster  voters  in  Westminister  Hall,  to  consider  a 
Petition  similar  to  the  City's.  It  was  moved  by  Charles 
Fox,  and  approved,  but  with  the  utmost  tranquillity, 
for  the  people,  though  in  vast  numbers,  seemed  to  be 
perfectly  indifferent,  and  assembled  only  from  curiosity; 
yet  the  Court,  fearing  or  hoping  a  tumult,  had  a  large 
body  of  guards  in  readiness." 

And  there  was  also  a  meeting  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Southwark,  where  a  similar  Petition  was  adopted. 
Early  in  the  following  year  the  Ministry  of  Lord  North, 
after  an  existence  of  twelve  years,  came  to  an  end  ;  and 
such  was  the  revolt  from  high  Toryism,  which  had  landed 
the  country  in  such  disasters,  that  a  Whig  Government 
succeeded  it,  the  Marquis  of  Rockingham  becoming 
Prime  Minister,  and  Lord  Shelburne  and  Fox  becoming- 
Secretaries  of  State. 

This  administration  was  shortlived,  but  under  it  the 

1  Walpole's  Journal,  vol.  ii.  pp.  482,  483. 


138         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

House  of  Commons  brought  itself  formally  to  acknow- 
ledge the  errors  it  had  committed  in  the  treatment  of 
Mr.  Wilkes  and  the  Middlesex  electors,  some  thirteen 
years  previously,  and  did  so  in  the  most  thorough 
manner,  by  ordering  that  all  declarations,  orders,  and 
resolutions  respecting  the  election  of  John  Wilkes,  and 
his  incapacity  to  be  elected  a  member  to  serve  in  the 
said  Parliament,  should  be  expunged  from  the  Journals 
of  that  House  "  as  being  subversive  of  the  rights  of  the 
whole  body  of  electors  of  this  kingdom."  x 

What  a  commentary  on  all  the  arguments  of  the 
Ministers  and  of  "  the  King's  friends,"  which  were  used 
when  those  resolutions  were  being  placed  there.  What 
a  triumph  for  the  Platform.  Several  measures  were  also 
passed  during  this  Administration  which  had  been  dis- 
tinctly called  for  by  the  Platform,  and  which,  therefore, 
may  be  regarded  as  the  first-fruits  of  the  Platform  in 
legislation.  A  measure  of  economy  was  introduced  by 
Burke,  and  carried ;  part  only  of  the  large  and  com- 
prehensive plan  which  he  had  submitted  to  Parliament 
two  years  before,  but  still  something,  for  it  abolished  a 
number  of  offices  usually  held  by  members  of  Parliament, 
and  effected  an  annual  saving  of  £70,000. 

Such  had  been  the  impetus  given  by  the  Platform 
to  popular  legislation,  that  two  other  measures  were 
carried,  tending  to  the  improvement  of  the  constitution 
of  Parliament  and  the  diminution  of  corrupt  influence 
therein.  The  first  was  an  Act  excluding  contractors 
from  the  House  of  Commons,  and  the  second  was  a 
measure  debarring  revenue  officers — of  whom  there 
were  from  40,000  to  60,000  in  an  electoral  body  of 
about  300,000 — from  voting  at  Parliamentary  elections. 
The  disfranchisement  of  these  Government  automata, 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxii.  p.  1411. 


CHAP,  iv  THE  PLATFORM  AND  REFORM  139 

this  crew,  whose  interest  it  was  to  vote  for  any  govern- 
ment nominee,  and  who  were  absolutely  dependent  for 
their  situations  on  the  Ministers  of  the  day,  was,  as  Mr. 
Lecky  says,  "  by  far  the  most  serious  blow  that  had 
ever  been  administered  to  Government  influence  at 
elections."1 

But  it  was  in  its  larger  aspects  that  Parliamentary 
reform  was  sighed  for  and  desired ;  and  from  this  time 
on,  for  the  next  half  century,  the  question  was 
never  lost  sight  of  by  the  Platform.  Ministries  might 
rise  and  fall,  great  events  might  make  the  great 
heart  of  the  civilised  world  palpitate  with  interest  or 
horror,  war  might  follow  peace,  and  peace  war,  the 
most  vital  interests  of  the  country  might  be  imperilled, 
each  and  every  one  of  these  events,  in  greater  or  less 
degree,  would  evoke  expressions  of  feeling  from  the 
people  by  means  of  the  Platform,  but  the  reform  of  Par- 
liament, or  rather  of  the  House  of  Commons,  was  the 
one  abiding  subject  which,  the  instant  the  temporary 
excitement  was  over,  was  harked  back  to  by  the  people, 
and  when  not  treated  solely  by  itself,  was  tacked  on  to 
whatever  other  subject  happened  to  be  forced  on  the 
attention  of  the  country.  Truly,  had  some  of  the  lead- 
ing reformers  of  the  day  discerned  that  here  lay  the 
real  measure  to  be  striven  for ;  and  gradually  was  the 
belief  burning  itself  ever  deeper  into  the  minds  of  larger 
numbers  of  the  people.  It  is  no  condemnation  of  the 
Platform  that  many  visionary  schemes  and  expedients 
by  way  of  reform  were  set  afloat,  for  the  true  remedy 
for  a  great  national  disease  is  not  all  at  once  to  be  dis- 
covered. The  general  direction  may  be  ascertained,  but 
the  particular  road  that  will  lead  to  it  is  not  always  so 
clear.  It  was  but  natural  that  men's  thoughts  should 

1  History  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,  vol.  iv.  p.  218. 


140         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

turn  in  this  direction.  To  succeed  in  obtaining  some 
voice  in  their  own  House  was  the  only  way  to  secure 
the  reform  of  abuses,  and  the  amelioration  of  the  state 
of  the  people. 

One  great  writer  after  another  had  condemned  the 
existing  system. 

"  To  what  gross  absurdities,"  wrote  Locke,  "  the 
following  of  custom,  when  reason  has  left  it,  may 
lead,  we  may  be  satisfied,  when  we  see  the  bare 
name  of  a  town,  of  which  there  remains  not  so  much 
as  the  ruins,  where  scarce  so  much  housing  as  a  sheep- 
cote,  or  more  inhabitants  than  a  shepherd  is  to  be 
found,  sends  as  many  representatives  to  the  grand 
assembly  of  law-makers  as  a  whole  county  numerous 
in  people,  and  powerful  in  riches.  This  strangers 
stand  amazed  at,  and,  every  one  must  confess,  needs 
a  remedy."  1 

The  result  of  the  then  existing  state  of  Parlia- 
mentary representation  was  that  the  commons,  or 
people  of  the  country,  had  not  the  actual  election  of 
the  House  of  Commons.  So  far  from  it,  the  House 
was,  as  a  body,  more  frequently  opposed  to  the  people 
than  on  their  side.  Burke  recognised  this  clearly.  He 
said :  "  A  House  of  Commons  which  in  all  disputes 
between  the  people  and  the  Administration  presumes 
against  the  people,  which  punishes  their  disorders, 
but  refuses  even  to  inquire  into  their  provocations, 
is  an  unnatural,  a  monstrous  state  of  things  in  the 
Constitution." 

And  even  so  it  was — both  unnatural  and  monstrous. 
And  the  majority  of  that  House,  so  far  from  being 
elected  even  by  any  appreciable  portion  of  the  people, 
was  returned  either  by  men  who  were  coerced  or  bribed 

1  Locke,  Of  Civil  Government,  chap.  xiii. 


CHAP,  iv         PARLIAMENTARY  REPRESENTATION  141 

into  returning  certain  nominees,  or  in  a  very  large 
number  of  cases  by  men  who  practically  elected 
themselves.  Burgh,1  in  his  Political  Disquisitions, 
described  this  state  of  things  :  "  A  handful  of  beg- 
gars," he  wrote,  "  either  tempted  by  a  bribe,  or 
awed  by  the  threats  of  a  man  in  power,  elect  or 
re-elect  as  many  as  they  are  bid.  And  so  the  House 
comes  to  be  filled  with  the  tools  of  a  minister." 

And  Oldfield,  in  his  Entire  and  Complete  History, 
Political  and  Personal,  of  the  Boroughs  of  Great 
Britain,  wrote  :  "  Thus  is  the  legislative  part  of  our 
Constitution  made  of  some  members  who  represent 
neither  houses  nor  persons  ;  of  others  who  are  the  repre- 
sentatives only  of  single  individuals ;  and  of  many 
whose  constituents  do  not  exceed  ten  in  number." 

The  places  sending  representatives  to  Parliament 
had  been  so  judiciously  selected  by  the  governing 
powers  in  previous  reigns,  as  to  exclude  the  more 
important  centres  of  wealth,  population,  and  intel- 
lectual activity ;  and  as  England  progressed  in  wealth 
and  population  this  evil  was  becoming  ever  more  and 
more  magnified.  It  is  needless  to  quote  statistics,  the 
facts  are  notorious,  and  were  self-evident  then  to  all 
who  were  beginning  to  take  a  deeper  interest  in  the 
political  life  of  their  country. 

It  was  not  from  the  Platform  that  the  first  real  rousing 
incentive  to  the  reform  of  Parliament  came,  but,  as  we 
have  seen,  from  Lord  Chatham,  when,  in  his  famous 
speech  in  the  House  of  Lords  in  1770,  he  proposed  "  to 
infuse  a  new  portion  of  health  into  the  Constitution." 

Beckford  had  alluded  to  the  question  on  the  Elec- 
toral Platform  in  1761,  as  we  may  remember,  but  the 
real  incentive  to  action  came  from  Lord  Chatham. 

1  Published  in  1 774,  p.  50. 


M2         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  r 

Parliament,  however,  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  sug- 
gestion ;  would  have  none  of  it.  Not  so  the  Plat- 
form, which  hailed  it  enthusiastically  as  its  own,  and 
which  thenceforward  gave  it  its  constant  unforgetting 
attention,  using  every  occasion  on  which  Government 
laid  itself  open  to  censure  to  enforce  the  moral  that  no 
Government  could  be  satisfactory  until  Parliamentary 
reform  was  effected.  Unfortunately  the  different  nature 
of  the  remedies  proposed,  the  extravagance  of  some  of 
them,  and  the  injudicious  way  in  which  they  were 
argued,  prevented  them  receiving  the  consideration  the 
subject  was  entitled  to.  But  unceasingly,  and  in  spite 
of  every  obstacle,  it  was  persevered  with,  and  when  not 
being  carried  rapidly  along  by  recurrent  gusts  of  popu- 
lar agitation,  it  was  being  quietly  pushed  forward  by 
other  influences. 

The  history  of  the  struggle  for  Parliamentary  reform 
is  usually  traced  in  Parliament,  but  its  real  history  was 
outside  Parliament. 

It  was  the  people  outside  Parliament  who  wanted 
Parliament  reformed — not  those  inside.  During  the 
half-century  over  which  the  struggle  for  reform  was 
prolonged,  the  whole  vital  force  of  the  demand  for 
reform  came  from  outside.  It  was  the  spokesmen,  the 
orators  of  the  people  outside  who  kept  the  demand  for 
it  alive — who  pressed  it  on  Parliament  in  season,  and,  to 
Parliament  men,  always,  out  of  season.  Now  and  then 
the  demand  was  urged  in  Parliament  by  some  ardent 
Member  of  the  Liberal  Party,  but  such  demand  was  the 
result  of  outside  activity,  outside  pressure.  It  was  by 
the  Platform  and  not  by  Parliament  that  the  question 
was  pushed — it  was  by  the  Platform  and  not  by 
Parliament  that  the  victory  was  finally  won. 

Stated  shortly,  the  actual  grievance  felt  peculiarly 


CHAP,  iv  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CROWN  143 

at  this  time  was  the  perpetual  acquiescence  of  the  House 
of  Commons  in  the  dictation  of  the  Ministers  of  the 
Crown. 

Lord  Buckingham,  ex-Prime  Minister,  speaking  in 
1780,1  had  stated  it  pretty  clearly.  He  said  :  "  It  was, 
early  in  the  present  reign,  promulged  as  a  Court  axiom 
that  the  power  and  influence  of  the  Crown  alone  was 
sufficient  to  support  any  set  of  men  his  Majesty  might 
think  proper  to  call  to  his  Councils. 

"  The  fact  bore  evidence  of  its  truth ;  for,  through 
the  influence  of  the  Crown,  majorities  had  been  procured 
to  support  any  men  or  any  measures  which  an  Adminis- 
tration, thus  constituted,  thought  proper  to  dictate. 
This  was  the  origin  of  all  our  national  misfortunes. 

"  Combining  the  measures  of  the  present  reign 
together,  he  would  say,  that  they  presented  such  a 
system  of  corruption,  public  venality,  and  despotism,  as 
never  before  took  place  in  any  limited  Government." 

And  Burke 2  also  had  spoken  out,  quite  unmistakably, 
about  it.  "  The  whole  of  our  grievances,"  he  said,  "  are 
owing  to  the  fatal  and  overgrown  influence  of  the 
Crown.  Formerly  the  operation  of  the  influence  of  the 
CrowTn  only  touched  the  higher  orders  of  the  State.  It 
has  now  insinuated  itself  into  every  creek  and  cranny  in 
the  kingdom." 

The  evil  was  patent.  No  intelligent  and  impartial 
person  could  fail  to  see  it,  and  as  to  remedy,  the  only 
one  was  equally  evident — a  reform  of  the  House  of 
Commons. 

The  action  of  the  Convention  of  Delegates,  which  had 
been  so  much  reprobated  in  1780 — namely,  the  grafting 
of  Parliamentary  reform  on  the  subject  of  economic 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xx.  p.  -  Hid.  p.  1297. 

1346  (8th  February  1780). 


144         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

reform — produced  nevertheless  one  great  result.  It  kept 
the  question  of  Parliamentary  reform  before  the  public ; 
and  on  the  7th  May  1782  William  Pitt,  stimulated 
partly  by  the  action  of  the  persevering  remnant  of  the 
Convention  of  the  Associated  Counties,  partly  by  his 
own  inclinations  and  ambitions,  and,  possibly,  partly  by 
the  vehemently  declared  opinions  of  his  father,  brought 
the  subject  forward  in  Parliament. 

Fox,  at  a  later  period  of  his  career,  gives  a  more 
graphic  picture  of  this  debate  than  do  the  bald  records 
of  the  Parliamentary  history  of  the  day.  Fox  said  : l 
"Towards  the  end  of  the  war  with  America,  it  became 
extremely  unpopular,  and  the  King's  Ministers  lost  the 
confidence  of  the  nation.  In  the  year  1780  a  dissolution 
took  place,  and  then  it  was  naturally  imagined  by  super- 
ficial observers  who  did  not  examine  the  real  state  of 
representation,  that  the  people  would  have  returned  a 
Parliament  that  would  have  unequivocally  spoken  their 
sentiments  on  the  occasion.  What  was  the  case  ?  The 
change  was  very  small  indeed,  not  more  than  three  or  four 
persons  were  added  to  the  number  of  those  who  had 
from  the  beginning  opposed  the  disastrous  career  of  the 
Ministers  in  that  war.  Lord  North  him  self  said:  'What ! 
can  you  contend  that  the  war  is  unpopular,  after  the 
declaration  in  its  favour  that  the  people  have  made  by 
their  choice  of  representatives  ?  The  general  election  is 
the  proof  that  the  war  continues  to  be  the  war  of  the 
people  of  England.'  Yet,"  said  Fox,  "it  was  notoriously 
otherwise  ;  so  much  so,  that  Mr.  Pitt  made  a  just  and 
striking  use  of  it  to  demonstrate  the  necessity  of 
Parliamentary  reform.  He  referred  to  this  event  as  a 
demonstration  of  this  doctrine.  '  You  see,'  said  he,  '  that 
so  defective,  so  inadequate,  is  the  present  practice,  at 

1  Parliamentary  History,  1797,  vol.  xxxiii.  p.  710. 


CHAP,  iv        PITT  AND  PARLIAMENTARY  REFORM  145 

least  of  the  elective  franchise,  that  no  impression  of 
national  calamity,  no  conviction  of  ministerial  error, 
no  abhorrence  of  disastrous  war,  is  sufficient  to  stand 
against  that  corrupt  influence  which  has  mixed  itself 
with  election,  and  which  drowns  and  stifles  the  popular 
voice.'  Upon  this  statement,  and  upon  this  unanswer- 
able argument,  the  Right  Honourable  Gentleman  acted 
in  the  year  1782." 

Pitt's  own  recorded  words  are :  "At  last  the 
voice  of  the  people  has  happily  prevailed,  and 
we  are  now  blessed  with  a  ministry  whose  wishes 
went  along  with  those  of  the  people,  for  a  moderate 
reform  of  the  errors  which  had  intruded  themselves 
into  the  Constitution.  .  .  .  The  representatives  had 
ceased,  in  a  great  degree,  to  be  connected  with  the 
people.  It  was  of  the  essence  of  the  Constitution  that 
the  people  should  have  a  share  in  the  Government  by 
the  means  of  representation.  The  representation  as  it 
now  stood  was  incomplete."  l 

He  did  not  produce  any  definite  plan,  but  moved 
for  an  inquiry  on  the  subject,  and  he  was  only  defeated 
by  20  votes;  141  having  voted  for  his  motion,  and  161 
against  it. 

Immediately  afterwards  a  "  numerous  and  respect- 
able meeting"  of  Members  of  Parliament  friendly  to  a 
constitutional  representation  of  Parliament,  and  of  the 
members  of  several  committees  of  counties  and  cities 
was  held  at  the  Thatched  House  Tavern  (on  18th  May), 
the  Lord  Mayor  of  London  in  the  chair,  and  Pitt 
himself  being  present,  when  it  was  resolved 2- 

"  That  the  motion  of  the  Honourable  William  Pitt, 
for  the  reform  of  Parliament  having  been  defeated,  it  is 

1  Parliamentary  History,   vol.  xxii.  3  Wyvill's  Political  Papers,   vol.  i. 

p.  1416.  p.  425. 


146         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

"become  indispensably  necessary  that  application  should 
be  made  to  Parliament  by  Petition  from  the  collective 
body  of  the  people  in  their  respective  districts,  re- 
questing a  substantial  reformation  of  the  Commons 
House  of  Parliament. 

"  That  this  meeting  is  of  opinion  that  the  sense  of 
the  people  should  be  taken  at  such  times  as  may  be 
convenient  during  this  summer,  in  order  to  lay  their 
petitions  before  Parliament  early  next  Session." 

The  resolutions  were  in  Pitt's  own  handwriting,1  and 
are  intensely  interesting  as  showing  that  he  was  in 
favour  of  the  system  of  the  people  meeting  and 
petitioning.  In  accordance  with  the  resolution  thus 
come  to,  the  Platform  was  set  to  work ;  numerous 
meetings  were  held  during  the  Parliamentary  recess, 
and  on  the  24th  of  February  in  the  following  year 
(1783)  a  Petition  was  presented  from  10,000  freeholders 
of  the  county  of  York,2  including  the  Lord  Lieutenant 
of  the  county,  praying  for  a  more  equal  representation 
of  the  people  in  Parliament ;  and  on  7th  May  several 
Petitions  were  presented  from  the  freeholders  in  the 
county  of  Kent,  from  the  electors  of  Westminster,  and 
from  various  other  places  and  persons,  praying  for  a 
reform  in  the  representation  of  the  people  in  Parliament.3 

Pitt,  who,  since  last  he  brought  forward  the  subject, 
had  filled  the  office  of  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer 
under  Lord  Shelburne  for  some  months,  again  urged 
the  question.  "He  reminded  the  House  how,  and 
upon  what  reasons  the  public  had  begun  to  look  at  the 
state  of  Parliamentary  representation.  He  stated  that 
the  disastrous  consequences  of  the  American  war,  the 
immense  expenditure  of  the  public  money,  the  con- 

1  See    State    Trials,    vol.    xxii.    p.  2  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxiii. 

493.  p.  571.  3  Ibid.  p.  826. 


CHAP,  iv        PITT  AND  PARLIAMENTARY  REFORM  147 

sequent  heavy  burden  of  taxes,  and  the  pressure  of  all 
the  collateral  difficulties  produced  by  the  foregoing 
circumstances,  gradually  disgusted  the  people,  and  at 
last  provoked  them  '  to  turn  their  eyes  inward  on  them- 
selves '  in  order  to  see  if  there  was  not  something 
radically  wrong  at  home,  that  was  the  chief  cause  of  all 
the  evils  they  felt  from  their  misfortunes  abroad.1 

"  Searching  for  the  internal  sources  of  their  foreign 
fatalities,  they  naturally  turned  their  attention  to  the 
Constitution  under  which  they  lived,  and  to  the  practice 
of  it.  Upon  looking  to  that  House  they  found  that  by 
length  of  time,  by  the  origin  and  progress  of  undue  in- 
fluence, and  from  other  causes,  the  spirit  of  liberty,  and 
the  powers  of  check  and  control  upon  the  Crown  and 
the  executive  Government,  were  greatly  lessened  and 
debilitated.  Hence,  clamours  sprung  up  without  doors, 
and  hence,  in  the  moment  of  anxiety  to  procure  an  ade- 
quate and  fit  remedy  to  a  practical  grievance,  a  spirit 
of  speculation  went  forth,  and  a  variety  of  schemes, 
founded  in  visionary  and  impracticable  ideas  of  reform, 
were  suddenly  produced.  .  .  . 

"  The  House  itself  had  discovered  that  a  secret  influ- 
ence of  the  Crown  was  sapping  the  very  foundation  of 
liberty  by  corruption ;  the  influence  of  the  Crown  had 
been  felt  within  those  walls,  and  had  often  been  found 
strong  enough  to  stifle  the  sense  of  duty,  and  to  over- 
rule the  propositions  made  to  satisfy  the  wishes  and 
desires  of  the  people.  The  House  of  Commons  had 
been  base  enough  to  feed  the  influence  that  enslaved  its 
members,  and  thus  was  at  one  time  the  parent  and  off- 
spring of  corruption.  This  influence,  however,  had 
risen  to  such  a  height  that  men  were  ashamed  any 
longer  to  deny  its  existence,  and  the  House  had  at 

1  Parliavwntary  History,  1783,  vol.  xxiii.  p.  828,  etc. 


148         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

"  length  been  driven  to  the  necessity  of  voting  that  it 
ought  to  be  diminished.  .  .  .  The  House  of  Commons, 

O  ' 

which,  according  to  the  true  spirit  of  the  Constitution, 
should  be  the  guardian  of  the  people's  freedom,  the  con- 
stitutional check  and  control  over  the  executive  power, 
would,  through  this  influence,  degenerate  into  a  mere 
engine  of  tyranny  and  oppression,  to  destroy  the  Con- 
stitution in  effect,  though  it  should  in  its  outward  form 
still  remain." 

After  dismissing  "  universal  suffrage  "  and  the  aboli- 
tion of  rotten  boroughs  as  impracticable,  he  suggested  an 
increase  of  county  members,  and  urgently  pressed  the 
necessity  of  something  being  done  in  compliance  with 
the  petitions  that  had  been  presented  complaining  of 
the  present  state  of  the  representation. 

So  much  was  involved  in  this  great  question  of 
Parliamentary  reform,  that  it  is  not  surprising  that  a 
resolute  stand  should  have  been  made  against  it  by  the 
King  and  Court  party. 

Lord  North,  as  ex-Prime  Minister,  spoke  strongly 
against  it.  He  protested  against  the  assumption  im- 
plied in  any  demand  for  reform,  that  members  of  the 
House  should  be  representatives  specially  of  the  people 
who  chose  them.  He  said :  "  We  are  not  the  deputies 
but  the  representatives  of  the  people.  We  are  not  to  refer 
to  them  before  we  determine.  We  stand  here  as  they 
would  stand,  to  use  our  own  discretion,  without  seeking 
any  other  guidance  under  heaven."1 

A  view  which  some  time  later  he  took  occasion  to 
reiterate  in  greater  amplitude :  "  That  House,  consti- 
tuted as  it  was,  represented  the  whole  kingdom.  Those 
gentlemen  who  held  that  the  instructions  of  constituents 
ought  on  all  occasions  to  be  complied  with  did  not  know 

1  Parliamentary  History,  1783,  vol.  xxiii.  p.  853. 


CHAP,  iv  PARLIAMENTARY  REFORM  149 

the  Constitution  of  their  country.1  To  surrender  their 
own  judgments,  to  abandon  their  own  opinions,  and  to 
act  as  their  constituents  thought  proper  to  instruct 
them,  right  or  wrong,  was  to  act  unconstitutionally. 
Let  them  recollect  who  and  what  they  were.  They 
were  not  sent  there,  like  the  States  General,  to  repre- 
sent a  particular  province  or  district,  and  to  take  care  of 
the  particular  interests  of  that  particular  province  ;  they 
were  sent  there  as  trustees,  to  act  for  the  benefit  and 
advantage  of  the  whole  kingdom.  The  moment  a 
gentleman  took  his  seat  he  was  to  consider  himself  as  a 
representative  of  all  England,  and  as  bound  to  take  as 
much  care  of  the  interests  of  one  part  of  the  Empire  as 
another.  The  idea,  therefore,  of  complying  in  all  cases 
with  the  instructions  of  constituents  was  an  idea 
directly  repugnant  to  the  constitution  of  Parliament, 
and  to  the  functions  and  duties  of  its  members." 

Pitt's  proposal  was  rejected  by  a  large  majority — 293 
voting  against  it,  and  149  for  it.  Evidently  the  Plat- 
form had  not  much  real  power  yet  as  a  political  engine 
— indeed  a  whole  generation  was  to  pass  before  it  would 
have  strength  enough  to  force  reform  from  even  that  part 
of  the  Constitution  which  was  considered  the  popular 
House. 

In  extenuation  of  some  of  the  opposition  to  reform 
we  must  bear  in  mind  what  many  Englishmen  thought 
of  the  English  Constitution.  Pitt's  eloquent  language 
in  the  speech  already  quoted  from  puts  their  views  as 
well  as  they  could  be  put :  "  No  man  saw  that  glorious 
fabric,  the  Constitution  of  this  country,  with  more 
admiration,  nor  with  more  reverence,  than  himself;  he 
beheld  it  with  wonder,  with  veneration,  and  with  grati- 
tude ;  it  gave  an  Englishman  such  dear  and  valuable 

1  Parliamentary  History ,  1784,  vol.  xxiv.  p.  988. 


ISO         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

"privileges,  or  he  might  say,  such  advantageous  and 
dignified  prerogatives,  that  were  not  only  beyond  the 
reach  of  the  subjects  of  every  other  nation,  but  afforded 
us  a  degree  of  happiness  unknown  to  those  who  lived 
under  governments  of  a  nature  less  pregnant  with 
principles  of  liberty.  Indeed,  there  was  no  form  of 
Government  on  the  known  surface  of  the  globe  that  was 
so  nearly  allied  to  perfect  freedom." l 

Contemporary  literature  and,  indeed,  events  prove, 
unfortunately,  however,  that  the  great  bulk  of  the 
opposition  to  reform  rose  from  selfish  or  sordid  ends. 
The  power  of  government,  the  emolument  of  office  and 
patronage,  the  luxury  of  sinecures,  the  love  of  rank  and 
social  position — all  these  had  a  far  more  powerful 
influence  on  the  great  majority  of  the  upper  classes  of 
the  time  than  these  fine  ideas  so  eloquently  expressed 
by  Pitt.  The  adverse  division  against  Reform  checked 
the  question  temporarily.  On  29th  May  1783  Horace 
Walpole  wrote:2  "We  have  subsided  suddenly  into  a 
comfortable  calm.  Not  only  war  has  disappeared,  but 
also  the  jostling  of  Ministries,  the  hostilities  of  factions, 
the  turbulence  of  County  Associations.  The  signal 
repulse  given  to  the  proposed  reformation  of  Parliament 
seems  to  have  dashed  all  that  rashness  of  innovation." 

But  the  question  was  not  lost  sight  of.  It  was  soon 
after  this  (on  15th  August  1783)  that  a  letter  was 
written  by  the  Duke  of  Richmond  to  Colonel  Sharman, 
which,  time  after  time,  in  later  years  was  quoted  by 
many  an  advocate  of  Reform,  and  the  gist  of  which 
had  best  be  given  here. 

The  Duke  wrote :  "  The  lesser  Reform  has  been 
attempted  with  every  possible  advantage  in  its  favour ; 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxiii.  a  Walpole's  Letters,  vol.  viii.  p.  370. 

p.  828. 


CHAP,  iv     THE  DUKE  OF  RICHMOND  ON  REFORM  151 

not  only  from  the  zealous  support  of  the  advocates  of  a 
more  effectual  one,  but  from  the  assistance  of  men  of 
great  weight,  both  in  and  out  of  power.  But  with  all 
these  temperaments  and  helps  it  has  failed.  Not  one 
proselyte  has  been  gained  from  corruption,  nor  has  the 
least  ray  of  hope  been  held  out  from  any  quarter,  that 
the  House  of  Commons  was  inclined  to  adopt  any  other 
mode  of  Reform.  The  weight  of  corruption  has  crushed 
this  more  gentle,  as  it  would  have  defeated  any  more 
efficacious  plan,  in  the  same  circumstances.  From  that 
quarter,  therefore,  I  have  nothing  to  hope.  IT  is  FROM 

THE  PEOPLE  AT  LARGE  THAT  I  EXPECT  ANY  GOOD.   And  I 

am  convinced  that  the  only  way  to  make  them  feel  that 
they  are  really  concerned  in  the  business  is  to  contend 
for  their  full,  clear,  and  indisputable  rights  of  universal 
representation." 

The  remarkable  feature  in  the  history  of  the  Platform 
at  this  period  is,  that  no  sooner  was  it  checked  in  one 
direction  than  it  would  burst  out  in  another;  and, 
having  gathered  fresh  strength,  could  return,  with 
increased  powers,  to  attack  the  position  from  which  it 
had  been  repulsed. 

Checked  temporarily  in  the  Reform  question,  the 
fierce  struggle  which  centred  round  the  Coalition 
Ministry,  and  the  elevation  of  Pitt  to  the  Prime 
Ministership,  created  numerous  occasions  for  the  use 
of  the  Platform,  and  that,  after  all,  was  what  the 
Platform  wanted  for  the  growth  of  its  power. 

On  the  death  of  the  Marquis  of  Rockingham,  Lord 
Shelburne  had  been  appointed  Prime  Minister.  His 
Ministry  rapidly  fell  to  pieces,  and  he  resigned.  The 
celebrated  Coalition  Ministry  was  formed  with  the 
Duke  of  Portland  at  the  head,  and  Fox  and  Lord 
North  Secretaries  of  State. 


152         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

"  There  were  circumstances  which  rendered  this 
junction  peculiarly  abhorrent,"  and  the  country  was  "  at 
once  astonished  and  scandalised."  Seldom  had  two 
Ministers  been  more  bitterly  opposed  to  each  other  than 
Fox  and  Lord  North.  For  years  they  had  been  the 
bitterest  and  most  outspoken  foes,  but  now,  wiping  out 
all  the  things  they  had  said  against  each  other,  they 
formed  a  coalition  which,  having  regard  to  the  numbers 
of  their  respective  followers  in  Parliament,  gave  them 
a  large  majority  in  the  House  of  Commons.  The 
King,  unable  at  the  time  to  get  any  other  Ministry,  had 
no  choice  but  to  accept  them. 

"  Finding,"  his  Majesty  wrote,1  "  on  the  coolest 
reflection,  when  the  supplies  are  not  yet  found  for  the 
navy,  army,  and  unfunded  debt,  that  a  bankruptcy  must 
ensue  if  I  did  not  sacrifice  myself  to  the  necessities  of 
my  people,  I  have  taken  the  bitter  potion  of  appoint- 
ing the  seven  Ministers  named  by  the  Duke  of  Portland 
and  Lord  North  to  kiss  hands,  who  are  after  that  to 
form  their  plan  of  arrangements." 

No  sooner  were  the  Ministers  installed  in  office  than 
the  King  began  planning  their  overthrow. 

They  introduced  a  plan  for  the  better  government 
of  India,  which  did  not  meet  with  royal  favour.  Unable 
to  secure  its  rejection  in  the  Commons,  where  it  was 
supported  by  large  majorities,  the  King  secured  its 
rejection  in  the  House  of  Lords  by  deliberate  threats  of 
royal  displeasure,  which,  of  course,  then  meant  a  good 
deal.  He  authorised  Lord  Temple  to  protest  against  the 
proposed  Bill. 

"His  Majesty  allows  Earl  Temple  to  say  that 
whoever  voted  for  the  India  Bill  was  not  only  not  his 

1  George  III.   to   Lord   Ashburton,       mcntary  Papers,  1883,  vol.   xxxvii.   p. 
2d  April  1783,  Morrison  MSS.—  Parlia-       482. 


CHAP,  iv  THE  COALITION  GOVERNMENT  153 

friend,  but  would  be  considered  by  him  as  an  enemy ; 
and  if  these  words  were  not  strong  enough,  Earl  Temple 
might  use  whatever  words  he  might  deem  stronger,  and 
more  to  the  purpose." 

In  vain  did  the  House  of  Commons  pass  condemna- 
tory resolutions.  Sir  Erskine  May  has  well  summarised 
the  situation.  He  said :  "  The  strange  spectacle  was 
here  exhibited  of  a  King  plotting  against  his  own 
Ministers,  of  the  Ministers  inveighing  against  the 
conduct  of  their  royal  master,  of  the  House  of 
Commons  supporting  them,  and  condemning  the  King, 
and  of  the  King  defying  at  once  his  Ministers  and  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  trusting  to  his  influence  with 
the  peers.  The  King's  tactics  prevailed.  On  the  very 
day  on  which  the  Commons  agreed  to  these  strong 
remonstrances  against  his  interference,  it  was  crowned 
with  complete  success.  The  India  Bill  was  rejected  by 
the  House  of  Lords,  and  the  next  day  the  King 
followed  up  his  advantage  by  at  once  dismissing  his 
Ministers." l 

The  King  now  chose  Pitt  as  Prime  Minister,  who 
entered  on  an  apparently  forlorn  hope.  The  moment 
he  assumed  the  duties  of  his  office,  the  hostile  majority 
in  the  Commons  passed  resolutions  of  want  of  confidence 
in  the  Ministers.  The  King  refused  to  change  them,  and 
Pitt,  claiming  that  the  nation  was  behind  him,  refused 
to  resign.2 

The  majority  of  the  House  of  Commons  appeared  to 
be  powerless.  Fox  had  made  the  grievous  miscalcula- 
tion that  a  majority  of  the  House  of  Commons  could 
compel  the  Crown  to  dismiss  its  Ministers,  or  could 
oblige  the  Ministers  themselves  to  resign.  It  could 

1  Constitutional  History  of  England,  2  Essay  on  Pitt. 

by  Sir  T.  Erskine  May,  vol.  i.  p.  60. 


154         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

neither  do  one  nor  the  other,  at  this  period  of  history, 
and  that  is,  for  us  now,  a  most  instructive  landmark. 

Pitt's  assertion  that  the  nation  was  behind  him  was 
daily  being  made  good.  His  fighting  almost  single- 
handed  against  a  powerful  opposition  enlisted  the 
widest  sympathy ;  his  championing  the  King  endeared 
him  to  all  whose  political  creed  could  be  summed  up  in 
the  formula,  "  for  King  and  Church." 

"  The  Throne  and  the  Altar  were  made  the  catch- 
words, and  under  them  was  comprehended  every  man's 
property,  and  influence,  and  consequence  in  life — all  of 
which  he  was  persuaded  he  should  lose  unless  he  sup- 
ported the  measures  of  the  Administration." 

"  Never  was  there  a  period,"  says  Bishop  Tomline,1 
in  his  life  of  Pitt,  "  when  the  national  opinion  was  more 
strongly  or  more  generally  expressed.  Almost  every 
county,  city,  and  considerable  corporation  in  the  king- 
dom, not  under  the  immediate  influence  of  the  adverse 
interest,  presented  addresses  to  the  Throne,  in  which 
they  returned  their  warmest  thanks  to  his  Majesty 
for  dismissing  his  late  Ministers  from  his  service,  and 
declared  their  firm  resolution  to  support  him  in  the 
defence  of  the  lawful  rights  of  his  Crown." 

In  some  of  these  proceedings  the  aid  of  the  Platform 
was  invoked. 

Contemporary  newspapers 2  give  a  description  of  one 
of  the  meetings,  which  is  specially  interesting,  as  it 
presents  Edmund  Burke  to  us  in  the  character  of  a 
Platform  speaker,  different  somewhat  from  that  in  which 
he  had  appeared  at  Bristol.  There  he  spoke  from  the 
electoral  Platform ;  here  he  spoke  at  a  county  meeting. 

1  Memoirs  of  the  Life  of  the  Right          2  The  Morning  Chronicle,  23d  March 
Honourable   William  Pitt,  by  George       1784  ;  also  The  Morning  Herald. 
Tomline,  D.D.,  vol.  i.  p.  441. 


CHAP,  iv  A  PLATFORM  SPEECH  BY  BURKE  155 

The  magnates  of  the  Tory  party  in  Buckinghamshire 
determined  on  getting  up  an  Address  to  the  King  to 
thank  him  for  dismissing  his  late  Ministry,  and  a  meet- 
ing was  accordingly  held  on  the  20th  March  at  Ayles- 
bury — "the  most  numerous  and  respectable  that  has 
been  remembered  in  the  county  of  Bucks." 

When  the  adoption  of  the  Address  had  been  pro- 
posed Sir  William  Lee  rose  and  expressed  his  disap- 
probation of  it.  Mr.  Aubrey,  M.P.,  spoke  in  favour  of 
it.  Burke,  the  greatest  of  orators,  then  rose,  but  was 
prevented  speaking  "  by  repeated  hisses  and  groans 
from  the  audience."  Lord  Mahon  then  came  forward 
and  requested  them  to  hear  Mr.  Burke  fairly,  and  he 
trusted  they  would  answer  him  completely.  Mr.  Burke 
then  obtained  an  audience.  He  said  this  had  not 
been  the  first  time  that  he  had  been  hissed  in  public  ;  he 
had  received  that  mark  of  disapprobation  upon  former 
occasions  when  his  conduct  had  proved  right  in  the 
end.  It  would  always  be  his  maxim  to  pursue  the  good 
of  the  people  without  regard  to  their  smiles  or  frowns. 
He  found  that  they  had  made  up  their  minds  on  the 
subject  of  the  Address,  but  nevertheless  he  should  speak 
his  sentiments  upon  it.  He  expatiated  on  the  danger 
of  diminishing  the  power  of  the  House  of  Commons,  on 
which  the  existence  of  the  liberties  of  this  country 
depended.  He  observed  that  the  other  States  of 
Europe  had  been  free,  but  had  successively  lost  their 
liberties,  and  that  if  they  annihilated  the  present  House 
of  Commons  they  would  never  get  such  another.  Here 
he  was  interrupted  by  a  cry  of  "Not  so  bad  a  one." 
However,  he  proceeded  at  length  in  defence  of  the  late 
Administration  and  of  the  India  Bill.  He  rallied  Mr. 
Aubrey  upon  not  having  delivered  his  sentiments  in 
Parliament  upon  the  India  Bill.  That  was  the  proper 


i$6         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

place  to  discuss  questions  of  so  delicate  a  nature,  and 
not  popular  assemblies  like  the  present.  He  said  the 
people  were  not  competent  to  decide  upon  such  points. 
They  had  approved  of  the  American  War  in  the  same 
senseless  manner  they  now  disapproved  of  the  India 
Bill ;  they  had  not  capacity  to  comprehend  it.  He  said 
he  had  warmly  supported  it,  and  he  desired  that  might 
be  remembered  and  might  descend  as  a  monument  to 
posterity.  He  concluded  with  thanking  them  for  the 
candour  with  which  they  had  heard  him.  The  Morning 
Chronicle  reporter  said  :  "  He  showed  the  eloquent  and 
able  orator  throughout  the  whole  of  his  speech,  which 
lasted  about  three-quarters  of  an  hour,  and  which  was 
upon  the  whole  well  heard,  allowing  for  the  warmth 
and  earnestness  with  which  the  freeholders  present 
espoused  the  Address." 

Lord  Mahon  then  spoke.  His  speech  was  "  a  very 
able  and  complete  refutation  of  what  had  been  urged 
by  Mr.  Burke."  Mr.  Coke,  M.P.  for  Norfolk,  began  to 
speak.  He  said  he  was  a  supporter  of  the  India  Bill. 
"  This  occasioned  a  general  indignation  expressed  by 
hissing  and  hooting  and  such  a  complication  of  noises 
that  he  withdrew."  The  Address  was  adopted. 

"Where,"  says  a  correspondent  of  The  Morning 
Herald — "  where  is  the  use  of  convening  public  meet- 
ings if,  as  in  the  above  instance,  every  method  is  taken 
by  the  ministerial  partisans  to  drown  all  arguments 
that  militate  against  them  in  noise  and  clamour,  and  by 
that  means  prevent  the  independent  elector  from  im- 
partially judging  of  the  justice  of  their  cause." 

There  is  also  extant  for  our  edification  an  interest- 
ing description  of  another  meeting  of  the  most 
crucial  import  in  the  struggle  between  the  Crown  and 
the  majority  of  the  House  of  Commons.  It  occurred 


CHAP,  iv  A  YORKSHIRE  MEETING  157 

on  the  familiar  ground  of  York,  and  the  prize  was  the 
adherence  of  that  great  county  to  the  one  side  or  the 
other.  Success  in  Yorkshire  was  "  the  sheet-anchor  of 
the  Coalition  " ;  whilst,  on  the  other  side,  an  Address  to 
the  King  would,  it  was  thought,  prove  a  deathblow 
to  the  future  hopes  of  the  Coalition.  The  Yorkshire 
Association  had  already  decided  against  the  Coalition, 
and  a  meeting  of  the  county  was  convened  to  settle 
whether  it  would  declare  the  same  way. 

The  meeting  took  place  on  25th  of  March — "a  cold 
hailing  day '' ;  it  was  held  in  the  Castle  Yard  at  York,  and 
lasted  from  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning  till  half-past  four 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  "  In  those  days  they  kept  up  a 
vast  deal  of  state,  and  the  great  men  all  drove  up  in  their 
coaches  and  six.  An  immense  body  of  the  freeholders 
was  present.  It  was  a  wonderful  meeting  for  order  and 
fair  hearing."  x  An  address  to  the  King  condemning  the 
Coalition  Ministry  was  proposed  by  Mr.  Buck,  and  sup- 
ported by  Mr.  H.  Buncombe  and  others.  On  the  other 
side  appeared  Lord  John  Cavendish,  Lord  Fitzwilliam, 
and  many  other  men  of  rank  and  influence.  When 
the  proposers  of  the  Address  had  spoken,  and  the  Whig 
Lords  had  been  heard  in  answer,  the  day  was  far  ad- 
vanced, and  the  listeners  were  growing  weary  of  the 
contest.  At  this  time  Mr.  Wilberforce  mounted  the 
table,  from  which,  under  a  great  wooden  canopy  before 
the  High  Sheriffs  chair,  the  various  speakers  had  ad- 
dressed the  meeting.  "  The  weather  was  so  bad  that  it 
seemed,"  says  an  eyewitness,  "as  if  his  slight  frame 
would  be  unable  to  make  head  against  its  violence. 
The  Castle  Yard  too  was  so  crowded  that  men  of  the 
greatest  physical  powers  had  been  scarcely  audible. 
Yet  such  was  the  magic  of  his  voice,  and  the  grace  of  his 

1  See  Life  of  William  Wilberforce,  by  his  sons,  vol.  i.  p.  53. 


158         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

"  expression,  that  by  his  very  first  sentence  he  arrested, 
and  for  above  an  hour  he  continued  to  enchain,  the 
attention  of  the  surrounding  multitude." 

The  Address  was  carried  by  a  show  of  hands,  though 
the  division  on  it  appeared  to  have  been  so  very  close 
an  affair  that  there  was  considerable  doubt  about  it; 
and  almost  whilst  in  the  act  of  speaking,  Wilberforce 
received  a  letter  from  Pitt  announcing  the  dissolution 
of  Parliament.  The  King  and  Pitt  both  thought  that 
the  time  had  come  for  a  dissolution,  and  on  the  25th 
March  Parliament  was  dissolved,  the  King  stating  that 
he  "  appealed  to  the  sense  of  the  people." 

"It  is  not  every  dissolution  of  Parliament  that  can 
with  propriety  be  regarded  as  a  direct  and  specific 
appeal  from  the  Sovereign  to  his  people."  This  one 
emphatically  was.1 

Years  afterwards  a  critic  in  the  Edinburgh  Review 
regarded  this  fact  as  subversive  of  the  principles  of 
representative  government,  and  condemned  Pitt  accord- 
ingly ;  but  it  is  a  practice  regarded  now  as  so  much  the 
opposite  of  being  subversive  of  the  Constitution,  that 
it  has  become  more  and  more  common,  and  the  tendency 
still  further  in  that  direction  is  one  of  the  features  of 
the  present  day.  This  dissolution  is  memorable  further 
for  the  reason  pointed  out  by  Macaulay,  that  "  No 
prince  of  the  Hanoverian  line  had  ever  under  any  pro- 
vocation ventured  to  appeal  from  the  representative 
body  to  the  constituent  body "  ;  and  also  as  showing 
how  fully  aware  Pitt  was  of  the  importance  of  public 
opinion,  and  how  desirous  he  was  to  conciliate  and 
secure  its  support. 

Strange  as  it  on  the  surface  appears,  that  an  alliance 

1  See  A  History  of  the  Political  Life  of  William  Pitt,  by  John  Gifford  (1809), 
vol.  i.  p.  163. 


CHAP,  iv  THE  GENERAL  ELECTION  OF  1784  159 

should  have  been  formed  between  a  sovereign  who  was 
opposed  to  all  popular  reform,  and  a  man  who  was  one 
of  the  leaders  and  the  spokesman  of  the  party  of  reform, 
yet  the  fact  was  there,  visible  to  all  men.  That  Pitt 
should  have  been  supporting  the  King,  and  Wilkes 
appealing  to  the  electors  of  Middlesex  to  enable  him  to 
support  Pitt,  was  indeed  curious.1  For  once  the  cries 
of  "  King  and  Church,"  and  "  Reform  and  Economy," 
commingled. 

While  the  dissolution  was  still  impending,  meetings 
were  held  in  Westminster  to  prepare  the  way  for  the 
coming  contest  in  that  constituency.  These  meetings, 
we  are  told,  were  "  a  series  of  tumults  and  outrages 
unparalleled  either  for  their  grossness  or  continuance, 
which  occasioned  all  sorts  of  violence,  bloodshed,  and 
murder."  We  get  a  graphic  sketch  of  one  of  them, 
evidently  not  quite  the  worst.  On  the  14th  March  the 
public  general  meeting  was  held  in  Westminster  Hall. 
Before  twelve  o'clock  Sir  C.  Wray  and  his  friends  "  took 
their  station  on  the  hustings  erected  in  the  hall.  .  .  . 
Soon  afterwards  Mr.  Fox  and  his  friends  mounted  the 
hustings,  which  was  crowded  to  excess.  A  disgraceful 
scuffle  immediately  ensued,  and  the  chair  was  broken 
to  pieces.  The  utmost  confusion  was  produced  in  the 
hall.  The  hustings  were  nearly  destroyed,  and  the 
limbs  and  lives  of  many  were  endangered.  After  a 
contention,  which  lasted  nearly  an  hour,  Mr.  Fox  and 
his  friends  retired."  Fox  then  proceeded  to  address  "  a 
multitude  in  Palace  Yard  from  a  window  of  the  King's 
Arms  Tavern,  whence,  having  been  drawn  by  the 
populace  to  Devonshire  House,  Piccadilly,  a  second 
meeting  was  held." 

1  See  "  Wilkes's  Address  to  the  Electors  of  Middlesex,"  in  The  Public  Adver- 
tiser, April  1784. 


160         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

Macaulay  has  given  a  very  lucid  explanation  of  the 
feelings  of  the  electors  and  of  those  in  whose  hands  the 
electors  were  the  pawns.1 

By  the  Coalition  between  North,  the  recognised  head 
of  the  Tory  party,  and  Fox,  the  idol  of  the  Whig  party, 
both  offended  their  most  zealous  supporters. 

"  Squires  and  rectors  who  had  inherited  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  cavaliers  of  the  preceding  century,  could 
not  forgive  their  old  leader  (North)  for  combining  with 
disloyal  subjects  in  order  to  put  a  force  on  the  Sovereign. 
The  members  of  the  Bill  of  Rights  Society,  and  of  the 
Reform  Associations,  were  enraged  by  learning  that 
their  favourite  orator  now  called  the  great  champion  of 
tyranny  and  corruption  his  noble  friend.  Two  great 
multitudes  were  at  once  left  without  any  head,  and 
both  at  once  turned  their  eyes  on  Pitt.  One  party  saw 
in  him  the  only  man  who  could  rescue  the  King,  the 
other  saw  in  him  the  only  man  who  could  purify  the 
Parliament." 

Quite  early  in  the  elections  was  it  evident  to  which 
side  victory  would  go. 

On  6th  April  we  learn  from  The  St.  James's 
Chronicle  :  "  Some  gentlemen  are  already  thrown  out,  of 
the  most  unexceptional  characters  and  fortunes,  merely 
because  they  were  friends  of  the  Coalition ;  and  in  a 
great  number  of  places  there  are  oppositions  on  that 
one  principle  which  shows  the  wisdom  of  the  Ministry 
to  taking  the  sense  of  the  people." 

"  Now  rose  the  war-cry  of  the  huslings  throughout 
England,"  wrote  Lord  Stanhope.  "  Almost  everywhere 
Fox's  banner  was  unfurled,  and  almost  everywhere  struck 
down."  One  hundred  and  sixty  of  the  Coalition  lost  their 
seats,  and  were  known  by  the  name  of  "Fox's  martyrs."2 

1  See  his  Essay  on  Pitt,  p.  372.      -  Life  of  Pitt,  by  Lord  Stanhope,  vol.  i.  p.  204. 


CHAP,  iv  THE  GENERAL  ELECTION  OF  1784  161 

"  So  strong,"  wrote  Wraxall,  "  was  the  general 
enthusiasm,  that  neither  high  birth,  nor  extended  pro- 
perty, nor  long  Parliamentary  services,  nor  talents,  how- 
ever eminent,  could  always  secure  a  seat,  unless 
sustained  by  opinions  favourable  to  the  Administra- 
tion." l  The  King  was  overjoyed  ;  the  results  were  "  on 
the  whole  more  favourable  than  even  the  most  zealous 
expected."2 

It  was  a  great  occasion  for  the  Platform.  Never 
yet  had  there  been  so  many  contests  at  a  general 
election,  and  every  contest  implied  to  some  extent, 
large  or  small,  the  use  of  the  Platform.  Eight  counties 
were  contested  in  England,  and  one  in  Wales,  and  no 
less  than  65  boroughs — a  total  of  74  contests. 

Fox  stood  for  Westminster,  "the  greatest  and  most 
enlightened  as  it  was  then  considered  of  all  the  repre- 
sented boroughs  of  England."  "  The  poll  continued  open 
from  the  1st  of  April  to  the  1 7th  of  May."3  During 
this  time  every  nerve  was  strained  on  either  side.  "  At 
the  hustings  at  Covent  Garden,  hour  after  hour,  the 
orators  strove  to  out-argue  and  the  mobs  to  out-bawl 
each  other.  All  day  long  the  open  space  in  front 
resounded  with  alternate  clamours,  while  the  walls  were 
white  with  placards,  and  the  newspapers  teeming  with 
lampoons.  Taverns  and  public -houses  were  thrown 
open  at  vast  expense.  Troops  of  infuriated  partisans, 
decked  with  party  ribbons,  and  flushed  with  gin  and 
wine,  were  wont  to  have  fierce  conflicts  in  the  streets, 
often  with  severe  injuries  inflicted,  and  in  one  instance 
even  with  loss  of  life." 4 

Pitt  himself  stood  for  the  University  of  Cambridge 

1  Memoirs  of  Sir  N.  W.  Wraxall,  of  the  Right  Hon.  G.  Rose,  vol.  i.  p.  62. 

vol.  iii.  p.  339.  3  Stanhope's  Pitt,  vol.  i.  p.  208. 

-  The  King  to  Mr.  Rose,  4th  April  4  See  also  History  of  the  Westminster 

1784. — See  Diaries  and  Correspondence  Election  0/17S4. 


162         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

— "  rather  unexplored  ground  at  present,"  he  wrote  to 
the  Duke  of  Rutland,  "  but  I  am  sanguine  in  my  ex- 
pectations." *  He  was  successful  after  a  keen  contest. 
"  That  learned  body,"  wrote  Wraxall,2  "  conscious  that 
the  spirit  of  distributing  prebends  and  bishoprics  had 
been  transferred  from  the  Coalition,  placed  him  at  the 
head  of  the  poll." 

No  speech  was  delivered  by  him  there.  In  Oxford 
University  there  was  a  regulation  that  no  candidate 
for  Parliamentary  election  should  approach  within  ten 
miles  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  University  during  the 
time  of  an  election.3  A  somewhat  similar  regulation 
existed  at  Cambridge  University,  though  not.  quite  so 
strict  apparently,  for  Pitt  was  there  and  canvassed ; 
that  is  recorded.4 

As  regards  the  use  of  the  Platform  throughout  the 
country  at  this  election,  the  Press  of  the  time  gives 
little  information.  In  none  of  the  metropolitan  news- 
papers is  there  scarcely  more  than  a  reference  to  any 
speech  at  any  of  the  elections,  except  in  the  metropolis 
and  its  immediate  neighbourhood.  Still  there  is  suffi- 
cient to  enable  us  to  draw  the  general  conclusion  that 
candidates  were  obliged,  in  larger  or  more  open  con- 
stituencies, to  have  recourse  to  the  Platform,  or  the 
"  Hustings,"  as  it  was  then  called ;  but  they  attributed 
little  importance  to  any  results  to  be  gained  from  it, 
and  we  conclude  that  the  Press  did  not  consider  what 
was  said  from  it  as  of  much  consequence. 

It  is  of  course  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  owing  to 
the  slowness  of  communication  in  those  days,  no  speech 
could  have  had  any  wider  effect  than  upon  those  to 

1  See  Correspondence  between  the  Right  3  See     Oldfield's     History     of    the 

Hem.   Wm.  Pitt  and  the  Duke  of  Rut-  Boroughs,  etc.,  vol.  ii.  p.  387. 

land.     London,  1842.  4  See  London  papers  of  the  time. 

a  Memoirs,  vol.  iii.  (1884  ed.),  p.  340. 


CHAP,  iv  THE  GENERAL  ELECTION  OF  1784  163 

whom  it  was  addressed ;  but  the  real  explanation  of  the 
comparative  unimportance  of  the  Platform  was  that  the 
actual  government  of  the  country  was  securely  fixed  in 
the  hands  of  the  King  and  Parliament;  and  further, 
that  in  those  days  politicians  thought  only  of  their 
Parliamentary  reputation. 

The  history  of  the  country  at  this  period  is  written 
in  accounts  of  personal  changes,  of  the  composition  of 
successive  Cabinets,  of  the  Parliamentary  intrigues,  and 
of  the  individual  opinions  or  schemes  of  this  or  that 
politician.  It  is  far  more  a  personal  history  than  a 
public  history.  The  personality  of  a  public  man  over- 
shadows completely  the  importance  of  the  measures 
advocated  or  opposed  by  him  in  Parliament.  The 
intrigues,  quarrels,  coalitions,  separations  of  the  states- 
men of  the  day,  figure  to  the  exclusion  of  the  advan- 
tages or  disadvantages  of  the  measure  discussed,  or  its 
effect  on  the  general  public.  Reputation  sprang  from 
distinction  in  Parliamentary  debate  and  management 
and  not  from  any  efforts  outside  the  House.  Brilliant 
orators  many  of  the  most  prominent  men  were,  genuine 
lovers  of  their  country,  but  Parliament  was  the  arena  of 
conflict,  and  Parliamentary  laurels  the  crown  of  victory. 

It  is  desirable  to  dwell  on  these  facts  in  connec- 
tion with  the  most  important  general  election  of  the 
century,  for,  as  has  been  truly  pointed  out,  "  the  General 
Election  of  1784  determined  for  more  than  forty  years 
the  question  of  the  government  of  England."  l 

It  would,  however,  be  taking  but  a  partial  view  of 
the  "  Platform "  at  election  time,  if  whilst  acknow- 
ledging that  as  a  political  power  it  was  held  in  more  or 
less  contempt  by  statesmen  and  politicians,  we  were  to 
shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  every  electoral  contest 

1  Russell's  Fox,  vol.  ii.  p.  247. 


164         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS'  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

familiarised  it  more  and  more  to  the  people.  The  more 
the  demand  came  from  them  for  addresses  and  speeches 
from  the  Platform,  the  more  would  it  have  to  be  met ; 
and  as  a  general  election  was  the  one  occasion  within 
every  six  or  seven  years  when  they  enjoyed  the 
semblance  of  political  power,  they  were  disposed  to 
make  ever  more  and  more  of  it.  The  speechifying, 
though  scarcely  likely  of  itself  to  influence  votes,  was 
part  of  the  entertainment ;  and  where  the  constituency 
was  at  all  a  large  one,  was  a  necessary  part.  Indeed,  if 
we  take  the  Westminster  election  or  Southwark  or 
London  city  or  Middlesex  elections  as  examples,  we 
find  an  amount  of  speechifying  as  great  almost  as  the 
present  times  can  show ;  and  the  fact  that  this  election 
of  1784  was  a  direct  appeal  to  the  people  on  a  specific 
subject  awoke  far  greater  interest  in  the  elections  than 
had  ever  before  been  occasioned.  They  once  over,  and 
Pitt  firmly  seated  in  power,  still  a  Whig,  and  still  the 
advocate  of  Parliamentary  reform,  a  lull  naturally 
ensued  in  popular  agitation. 

Wraxall,  in  his  Memoirs,  has  described  the  effect 
of  the  elections.  He  wrote : l  "  After  witnessing 
the  formation  and  extinction  of  three  Administra- 
tions within  the  space  of  little  more  than  twenty 
months,  George  III.  beheld  in  prospect  domestic 
tranquillity,  personal  freedom,  and  national  pros- 
perity. .  .  .  All  the  errors  and  misfortunes  of  his 
reign  seemed  to  be  swallowed  up  and  forgotten  in  the 
grave  of  the  Coalition  .  .  .  the  accumulated  evils  of 
three  and  twenty  years  disappeared  at  once,  arid  were 
obliterated.  Only  the  virtues  of  the  Sovereign  seemed 
to  survive  in  the  memory  of  his  people.  The  same 
prince  who,  in  March  1782,  laboured  under  a  load  of 

1  Russell's  Fox,  vol.  iii.  pp.  331,  332. 


CHAP,  iv  PARLIAMENTARY  REFORM  165 

prejudice  and  unpopularity,  was  considered  in  March 
1784  as  the  guardian  of  the  Constitution,  worthy  the 
warmest  testimonies  of  affection,  gratitude,  and  respect. 
They  poured  in  upon  him  from  all  quarters,  acknow- 
ledging the  blessings  of  his  paternal  government,  and 
approving  the  recent  interference  of  his  prerogative  for 
the  destruction  of  an  unprincipled  faction.  ...  A 
new  order  of  events,  and  a  new  era  seemed  to  com- 
mence from  this  auspicious  date." 

It  was  under  these  new  circumstances  and  as  Prime 
Minister  in  a  new  House  of  Commons  that  Pitt  once 
more  brought  forward  the  question  of  Parliamentary 
reform.  His  present  proposal  showed  a  considerable 
advance  on  his  former  ideas.  A  certain  number  of 
boroughs,  about  thirty-six,  should,  he  said,  be  dis- 
franchised on  their  voluntary  application  to  Parliament, 
when  they  should  receive  an  adequate  consideration, 
and  their  seats  be  transferred  to  the  counties.  A  few 
large  towns  should  be  enfranchised,  and  in  the  counties 
the  franchise  should  be  given  to  copyholders.1 

"  It  was  a  new  and  interesting  object,"  said  Mr. 
Duncombe,  "  to  see  the  Minister  of  the  Crown  standing 
forth  in  this  zealous  and  patriotic  manner  as  the  advo- 
cate of  the  people." 

But  the  result  was  no  more  successful  than  those 
which  had  gone  before. 

"  Had  the  people  of  England  called  for  a  reform  ?  " 
was  scornfully  asked.  "  There  were  but  eight  petitions 
on  the  table."  "  There  are  no  petitions  against  it,"  was 
the  reply  ;  "  the  best  proof  that  the  opinion  of  the  nation 
at  large  was  for  a  reform."  But  248  voted  against 
Pitt's  proposal,  and  174  for  it,  and  the  cause  sustained 
a  crushing  reverse. 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxv.  p.  432. 


166         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

One  cannot  help  feeling,  someway  or  other,  that  the 
attempt  on  Pitt's  part  was  more  or  less  half-hearted,  or 
done  only  in  fulfilment  of  an  obligation  which  he  knew 
was  hopeless  of  attainment,  and  that  if  he  had  really 
meant  to  carry  his  scheme,  or  some  measure  of  reform, 
complete  master  as  he  was  of  the  situation  at  the  time, 
he  might  have  made  a  better  fight  for  it. 

His  failure,  however,  to  carry  his  proposals  con- 
vinced most  men  that  the  prospects  of  Parliamentary 
reform  were  for  the  time  at  least  hopeless  ;  and  as  the 
people  still  looked  upon  him  as  a  Minister  whose  sym- 
pathies were  on  their  side,  they  were  for  the  time  con- 
tent to  leave  it  so. 

One  incident  in  the  following  year  (1785),  as  bearing 
on  the  Platform,  should  be  recorded  before  we  pass  on. 
Horace  Walpole  tells  us  that  in  September  1785  Fox, 
Lord  Derby,  and  others  of  that  party,  visited  Man- 
chester, and  had  a  great  reception  for  their  opposition 
to  the  new  taxes  and  Irish  proposition.1 

Fox  gives  a  short  account  of  the  visit  himself. 

"  Our  reception  at  Manchester  was  the  finest  thing 
imaginable,  and  handsome  in  all  respects.  All  the 
principal  people  came  out  to  meet  us,  and  attended  us 
into  the  town,  with  blue  and  buff  cockades,  and  a  pro- 
cession as  fine,  and  not  unlike  that  upon  my  chairing  at 
Westminster.  We  dined  with  150  people,  and  Mr. 
Walker  gave  me  as  a  toast." 

He  gives  no  account  of  his  own  speech,  does  not 
even  mention  that  he  spoke — though  of  course  he  did 
— but  the  event  is  interesting  as  an  early  example  of 
what  later  became  a  common  practice,  and  an  important 
branch  of  the  Platform, — a  political  dinner  to  ex-Minis- 
ters, with,  I  think  we  may  presume,  speeches. 

1  See  Lord  Russell's  Fox,  vol.  ii.  p.  270. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  LEGAL  POSITION  OF  THE  PLATFORM 

BEFORE  entering  on  the  troublous  times  when  the  great 
drama  of  the  French  Revolution  was  enacted,  and 
when  in  this  country  effort  after  effort  was  made  to 
suppress  free  speech  and  public  discussion,  it  is  desir- 
able to  ascertain  as  clearly  as  we  now  can  the  position 
in  which  this  new  political  engine,  the  Platform,  stood 
at  this  time  in  its  relation  to  the  existing  laws  of  the 
country. 

The  inquiry  falls  under  three  heads. 

The  first  is,  how  far  were  public  meetings  permitted 
by  the  law  ?  the  second,  what  sort  of  meetings  were 
considered  legal  ?  and  the  third,  how  far  was  speech 
free  at  public  meetings  ? 

Now,  as  regards  the  first,  it  appears  to  have  been 
very  prevalently  believed,  though  whence  the  belief 
originated  it  is  impossible  to  say,  that  no  meeting  could 
be  held  without  its  having  been  convoked  by  the  Lord 
Lieutenant,  or  the  Sheriff  of  the  county.  Probably  the 
idea  arose  from  the  fact  that  almost  the  only  meetings 
with  which  people  were  familiar,  namely,  the  meetings 
for  the  election  of  members  of  Parliament,  were  thus 
convened,  and  when  the  needs  of  a  developing  political 
and  social  life  created  the  demand  for  public  meetings 


168          THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  I 

for  other  purposes,  it  may  have  been  thought  necessary 
to  follow  the  precedent  already  in  existence. 

Such  convocation  or  form  of  procedure,  however,  was 
not  required  by  any  statute,  or  even  by  common  law. 

"  The  Courts  never  went  the  length  of  laying 
down  a  positive  rule  of  law  that  a  public  meeting 
could  not  be  held  without  the  licence  of  some  public 
functionary," l  but  they  certainly  were  very  much 
opposed  to  such  an  innovation,  as  likewise  were  Par- 
liament, and  most  of  the  authorities  in  those  times. 

The  idea  of  holding  a  meeting  without  the  sanction  of 
the  Sheriff,  or  the  Lord  Lieutenant  of  the  county,  was 
one  of  those  new-fangled  popular  ideas  which  required 
repression.  It  was  an  invasion  of  the  prerogatives  of 
authority ;  it  was  the  assertion  of  an  independence 
which  was  not  to  be  encouraged  ;  it  was  an  attempt  on 
the  part  of  the  people  to  set  themselves  up  as  some- 
bodies, to  revolt  from  their  proper  position  of  vassalage. 
Often,  therefore,  do  we  find  the  High  Sheriffs  refusing 
to  convene  meetings  when  asked  to  do  so  by  those 
whom  they  did  not  consider  of  sufficient  position  or 
importance  to  justify  such  a  request,  or  more  com- 
monly when  the  object  of  the  meeting  was  not  such  as 
commended  itself  to  them. 

The  Sheriffs  appear  to  have  been  of  opinion  that 
their  decision  was  necessary,  and  should  have  been  sub- 
mitted to  as  final. 

But  the  time  was  coming,  had  indeed  come,  when 
the  people  could  no  longer  be  expected  to  be  dependent 
for  the  expression  of  their  opinions  on  the  favour  or  dis- 
favour of  a  High  Sheriff  or  Lord  Lieutenant.  Men 
were  growing  up  whose  views  differed  somewhat  from 

1  See  Liberty  of  the  Press,  Speech,  aiid  Public  Worship,  by  James  Paterson, 
M.A.,  p.  19. 


CHAP,  v  THE  CONVENING  OF  MEETINGS  169 

the  stereotyped  and  not  unbiassed  views  of  these  im- 
portant functionaries ;  and,  at  any  rate,  the  attempt  to 
ascertain  whether  these  officials  were  to  be  an  everlast- 
ing bar  absolute  to  the  expression  of  the  public  voice 
was  worth  making. 

A  test  case  occurred  in  1780,  just  when  the 
"  Economy  agitation  "  was  in  full  swing.  In  several 
counties,  as  has  already  been  stated,  the  Sheriffs  had 
refused  to  call  a  public  meeting,  though  requested  to  do 
so,  alleging  some  feeble  or  disingenuous  excuse,  such  as 
that  the  application  to  them  was  not  sufficiently  numer- 
ously signed  to  justify  them  in  complying,  or  that  they 
were  leaving  office  immediately,  and  could  not  bind 
their  successor,  or  any  other  makeshift. 

In  Sussex  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  and  several  of  the 
nobility,  gentry,  and  freeholders,  applied  to  the  High 
Sheriff  to  call  a  meeting.  The  High  Sheriff  replied  that 
he  did  not  think  the  requisition  numerously  enough 
signed.  The  Duke,  however,  then  a  strong  reformer, 
and  not  to  be  put  off  with  what,  though  an  excuse,  was 
not  a  reason,  determined  on  calling  a  meeting  on  his 
own  responsibility ;  and  in  inviting  the  people  to 
attend,  he  wrote  :  "  I  conceive  that,  however  usual  it 
has  been,  the  name  of  the  High  Sheriff,  or  Lord  Lieu- 
tenant is  by  no  means  necessary  to  convene  the  county  ; 
that  the  request  of  any  gentleman  of  property  and 
character  is  of  equal  authority;  and  that  the  people 
have  a  right  to  assemble  themselves,  and  deliberate  on 
public  affairs  whenever  they  think  proper." 

As  already  narrated,  the  meeting  was  held ;  it  was 
numerously  attended,  a  Petition  was  adopted,  and  those 
present  determined  on  giving  every  support  in  their 
power  to  the  proposed  action  of  the  Yorkshire  and 
other  petitioners.  No  legal  proceedings  were  taken 


i;o         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  I 

against  them  for  thus  assembling,  nor  could  any  have 
been  taken.  The  right  of  the  people  to  meet  without 
being  convened  through  an  official  medium  was  thus 
established. 

Then  there  was  another  idea  rather  prevalent  at  the 
time,  which  was  also,  as  far  as  possible,  enforced,  with 
the  view  of  checking  the  practice  of  attending  public 
meetings,  and  of  limiting  the  numbers — the  idea  that 
none  but  freeholders  had  a  right  to  attend.  This  was 
an  ingenious  theory,  as  the  number  of  freeholders  was 
comparatively  small,  and  if  meetings  were  limited  to 
them,  part  of  the  mischief  of  public  meetings  would 
have  been  obviated.  But  the  question  was  formally 
raised  in  Cornwall.  "  Here,"  Oldfield  tells  us,1  "  and  in 
most  other  shires,  when  county  meetings  have  been 
held  to  petition  Parliament  for  redress  of  any  grievance, 
it  has  been  customary  for  the  Sheriff  to  summon  only 
the  freeholders,  as  if  every  other  description  of  persons, 
because  they  are  deprived  of  the  right  of  voting,  should 
be  deprived  of  the  right  of  petitioning  also.  The  inde- 
pendent gentlemen  of  this  county,  however,  signed  a 
requisition  to  the  Sheriff  to  summon  all  the  house- 
holders, as  well  as  the  freeholders,  to  the  last  county 
meeting.  The  Sheriff  refusing  to  comply  with  their 
request,  a  number  of  gentlemen  took  the  opinion  of 
eminent  counsel  on  the  legality  of  the  proceeding,  and 
called  a  meeting  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  county, 
which  was  accordingly  held  at  Bodmyn,  and  the  busi- 
ness was  conducted  in  the  same  manner  as  if  the  Sheriff 
had  called  them  together — thus  establishing  the  legality 
as  well  as  the  right  of  the  people  to  meet  upon  all 
occasions,  where  they  feel  a  public  grievance." 

1  See  his  History  of  Representation,       date  of  the  meeting,  but  it  was  prob- 
vol.  iii.  p.  135.     He  does  not  give  the       ably  early  in  this  century. 


CHAP,  v  LEGAL  AND  ILLEGAL  MEETINGS  171 

So  far,  then,  as  the  power  of  holding  meetings  was 
concerned,  it  would  appear  that  so  long  as  a  meeting 
was  not  convened  for  any  purpose  which  would  make  it 
an  illegal  meeting,  public  meetings  could  be  held  even 
without  the  sanction  of  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  or  High 
Sheriff  of  the  county,  but  that  it  required  some  persons 
of  property  or  influence  in  the  county  to  convene  the 
meeting.  That  meetings  of  the  common  folk  should  be 
held  without  such  convocation,  or  merely  on  their  own 
motion,  appears  to  have  been,  as  yet,  unthought  of. 

The  second  head  of  inquiry  is,  What  sort  of  meet- 
ings were  considered  legal  ?  This  can  best  be  ascer- 
tained by  stating  what  sort  of  meetings  were  considered 
illegal. 

"  Illegal  meetings  "  have  been  the  subject  of  numerous 
definitions  by  the  greatest  judges  of  England,  and  at  the 
time  now  under  consideration  the  law  does  not  appear  to 
have  been  much  different  from  what  it  is  at  present. 
Broadly  speaking,  any  meeting  might  be  considered 
illegal  which  tended  to  cause  a  breach  of  the  peace.  So 
far  back  as  the  reigns  of  Edward  II. ,  Richard  III., 
Henry  IV.,  and  Henry  V.,  Acts  had  been  passed  against 
unlawful  assemblies,  "  so  that,"  l  as  Blackstone  remarked, 
"our  ancient  law,  previous  to  the  modern  Riot  Act, 
seems  pretty  well  to  have  guarded  against  any  violent 
breach  of  the  public  peace ;  especially  as  any  riotous 
assembly  on  a  public  or  general  account,  as  to  redress 
grievances,  and  also  the  resisting  the  King's  forces  if 
sent  to  keep  the  peace,  may  amount  to  overt  acts  of  high 
treason,  by  levying  war  against  the  King." 

Lord  Chief-Justice  Holt  had  also  defined  the  law.  He 
said  :  "If  persons  do  assemble  themselves  and  act  with 
force  in  opposition  to  some  law  which  they  think  incon- 

1  Blackstone's  Commentaries. 


172         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

"  venient,  and  hope  thereby  to  get  it  repealed,  that  is  a 
levying  war  and  treason." 

The  meetings  for  the  election  of  a  Member  of  Parlia- 
ment were  legal,  and  a  special  amount  of  latitude  has 
always  been  allowed  to  the  persons  participating  in 
them,  not  merely  as  regarded  language,  but  also  as 
regarded  actions. 

Meetings  for  the  purpose  of  petitioning  the  King  or 
Parliament  were  also,  as  has  already  been  stated,  legal, 
but  under  somewhat  more  jealous  restrictions  than 
meetings  for  elections. 

The  law  was  thus  laid  down  in  1781  by  Lord 
Loughborough,  afterwards  Lord  Chancellor,  at  the  trials 
of  some  of  the  rioters  in  the  Gordon  riots.1  He  said : 
"To  petition  for  the  passing  or  repeal  of  any  Act  is  the 
undoubted  inherent  birthright  of  every  British  subject ; 
but  under  the  name  and  colour  of  petitioning,  to  assume 
command,  and  to  dictate  to  the  Legislature,  is  the  anni- 
hilation of  all  order  and  government.  Fatal  experience 
has  shown  the  mischief  of  tumultuous  petitioning,  in  the 
course  of  that  contest  in  the  reign  of  Charles  L,  which 
ended  in  the  overthrow  of  the  monarchy,  and  the 
destruction  of  the  Constitution ;  and  one  of  the  first 
laws,  after  the  restoration  of  legal  government,  was  a 
Statute  passed  in  the  thirteenth  year  of  Charles  II., 
cap.  5,  enacting  that  no  petition  to  the  King  or  either 
House  of  Parliament  for  alteration  of  matters  established 
by  law  in  Church  or  State  (unless  the  matter  thereof  be 
approved  by  three  Justices  or  the  Grand  Jury  of  the 
county)  shall  be  signed  by  more  than  twenty  names,  or 
delivered  by  more  than  ten  persons." 

And  at  the  end  of  Lord  George  Gordon's  trial,2 
Lord  Mansfield  reiterated  and  endorsed  the  opinion 

1  See  State  Trials,  vol.  xxi.  p.  487.  2  Ibid.  p.  646. 


CHAP,  v  LEGAL  AND  ILLEGAL  MEETINGS  173 

that  this  Act  was  still  in  full  force.  "But,  it  is  said, 
that  law  is  repealed  by  the  Bill  of  Rights.  I  speak 
the  joint  opinion  of  us  all,  that  the  Act  of  Charles  II. 
is  in  full  force  ;  there  is  not  the  colour  for  a  doubt. 
The  Bill  of  Rights  does  not  mean  to  meddle  with  it  at 
all ;  it  asserts  the  right  of  the  subject  to  petition  the 
King,  and  that  there  ought  to  be  no  commitments  for 
such  petitioning.  But  neither  the  Bill  of  Rights,  nor 
any  other  Statute,  repeals  this  Act  of  Charles  II." 

This  Act,  however,  appears  to  have  been  totally 
ignored  in  both  the  Middlesex  Election  Agitation  and 
the  Economy  Agitation,  so  far  at  least  as  the  number  of 
signatures  to  petitions  was  concerned,  and  as  years  went 
on,  it  fell  into  complete  desuetude,  though  on  one 
notable  occasion  its  provisions  were  appealed  to.1 

The  Riot  Act  which  was  passed  in  1714  (George  I. 
cap.  5)  did  not  define  an  illegal  meeting,  but  gave  a 
very  summary  process  of  dispersing  it,  for  it  enacted 
"  that  if  any  twelve  persons  are  unlawfully  assembled  to 
the  disturbance  of  the  peace,"  any  one  magistrate  might 
order  them  to  disperse,  and  if  they  did  not  do  so  within 
an  hour,  they  rendered  themselves  liable  to  a  penalty 
on  a  conviction  of  death,  as  in  a  case  of  felony,  without 
benefit  of  clergy. 

The  real  state  of  the  case  was,  that  the  question 
whether  a  meeting  was  illegal  or  not,  was,  ultimately, 
one  for  a  jury  to  determine.  But  up  to  the  period  with 
which  we  are  now  dealing,  little  difficulty  had  arisen  as 
to  the  legality  or  illegality  of  a  meeting. 

Except  absolutely  riotous  meetings,  or  proceedings, 
such  as  took  place  in  the  case  of  a  strike  for  increase  of 
wages,  or  for  food,  and  the  orderly  peaceable  meetings 

1  In     the     Police     Commissioners'       Kennington  Common  in  1S48,  see  post, 
Notice  about  the  Chartist  meeting  at       chapter  xix. 


174         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

which  have  been  described  in  connection  with  the 
Middlesex  election  agitation,  and  the  agitation  for 
economic  reform,  there  were  up  to  this  period  no  others. 
The  class  of  meetings  which  began  soon  after  the  date 
of  the  French  Revolution  were  still  completely  absent 
from  English  political  life. 

To  pass  on  to  the  third  head  of  our  inquiry,  it  is  to 
be  remarked  that  an  even  more  intricate  and  difficult 
question  than  the  legality  or  illegality  of  public  meetings 
is  the  legality  or  illegality  of  the  language  used  at  such 
meetings,  and  that  even  more  immediately  concerns  the 
Platform  than  the  other  two. 

The  subject  is  one  which  will  have  to  be  referred  to 
again  and  again  in  the  course  of  this  work,  and  it  can 
only  be  treated  here  in  its  incipient  stage. 

That  the  tendency  to  public  speech  and  comment  on 
public  affairs  was  increasing  was  manifest  enough.  Seldom 
if  ever  has  the  necessity  for  discussion,  or  one  might  say 
the  inevitability  of  discussion  been  more  eloquently  and 
forcibly  put  than  it  was  by  Lord  Chief-Justice  Eyre  in 
his  charge  to  the  Grand  Jury  at  Hardy's  trial  in  1794.1 
He  said  :  "  All  men  may,  nay,  all  men  must,  if  they 
possess  the  faculty  of  thinking,  reason  upon  everything 
which  sufficiently  interests  them  to  become  objects  of 
their  attention  ;  and  among  the  objects  of  the  attention 
of  free  men,  the  principles  of  government,  the  constitu- 
tion of  particular  governments,  and  above  all,  the 
constitution  of  the  government  under  which  they  live, 
will  naturally  engage  attention,  and  provoke  speculation. 
The  power  of  communication  of  thoughts  and  opinions 
is  the  gift  of  God,  and  the  freedom  of  it  is  the  source  of 
all  science,  the  first-fruits  and  the  ultimate  happiness  of 
society ;  and,  therefore,  it  seems  to  follow  that  human 

1  See  State  Trials,  vol.  xxiv.  p.  205. 


CHAP,  v  FREEDOM  OF  SPEECH  175 

laws  ought  not  to  interpose,  nay,  cannot  interpose,  to 
prevent  the  communication  of  sentiments  and  opinions 
in  voluntary  assemblies  of  men.  All  which  is  true, 
with  this  single  reservation,  that  those  assemblies  are  to 
be  so  composed,  and  so  conducted,  as  not  to  endanger 
the  public  peace  and  good  order  of  the  Government 
under  which  they  live." 

Human  laws,  however,  did  interpose,  and  very 
effectually  too,  and  it  required  at  this  time  a  certain 
audacity  to  make  even  claims  to  freedom  of  speech, 
much  less  to  indulge  in  free  speech  itself. 

Freedom  of  speech  stood  precisely  on  the  same 
grounds  as  the  freedom  of  the  Press.  As  regarded  it, 
Blackstone1  said  :  "The  liberty  of  the  Press  is  indeed 
essential  to  the  nature  of  a  free  State ;  but  this  consists 
in  laying  no  previous  restraints  upon  publications  and 
not  in  freedom  from  censure  for  criminal  matter  when 
published." 

And  so,  as  regards  the  Platform,  a  man  was  at  liberty 
to  say  what  he  liked — that,  indeed,  could  scarcely  be 
prevented  —  but  he  had  to  take  the  consequences  of 
what  he  said,  and  was  liable  to  legal  proceedings  against 
him  if  he  said  anything  illegal. 

But  in  another  way  he  was  under  greater  restric- 
tions, for  if  he  spoke  at  a  meeting  which  was  an  illegal 
one,  no  matter  how  harmless  or  innocent  his  remarks, 
he  was  still  liable  to  be  legally  proceeded  against  for 
attending  an  illegal  meeting. 

It  was  once  said  by  Lord  Thurlow,2  "  It  was  the 
glory  of  the  English  law  that  there  was  no  previous 
restraint  on  the  people  in  the  exercise  of  the  important 
privilege  of  meeting  to  discuss  grievances  and  petition 

1  Commentaries,  Book  vi.  chap.  x.          p.   541 ;  14th  December  1795,  House 

2  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxxii.       of  Lords. 


i;6         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

"  Parliament  respecting  them.  That  privilege  stood 
precisely  on  the  same  ground  with  the  freedom  of  the 
Press.  Its  use  was  free  and  unrestrained,  but  its  abuse 
was  open  to  punishment ; "  but  his  dictum  was  a  mis- 
leading one,  for  there  was  no  definition  of  the  word 
"  abuse,"  and  the  Government  interpreted  the  word 
just  as  it  pleased. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  a  public  speaker  could  not 
exceed  very  narrow  limits  without  laying  himself  open 
to  legal  penalties  which  it  required  the  very  bravest,  or 
the  most  reckless,  to  face. 

In  the  earlier  times  of  our  history  any  criticism  on 
the  Government  or  the  Constitution  were  attended  with 
risk. 

Burgh,  whose  Political  Disquisitions  were  published 
in  1774,  protested  that  "No  free  subject  ought  to  be 
under  the  least  restraint  in  respect  to  accusing  the 
greatest,  so  long  as  his  accusation  strikes  only  at  the 
political  conduct  of  the  accused ;  his  private  we  have  no 
right  to  meddle  with,  but  in  so  far  as  a  known  vicious 
private  character  indicates  an  unfitness  for  public  power 
or  trust."  1 

"No  man  ought  to  be  hindered  saying  or  writing 
what  he  pleases  on  the  conduct  of  those  who  undertake 
the  management  of  national  affairs,  in  which  all  are 
concerned,  and  therefore  have  a  right  to  inquire  and  to 
publish  their  suspicions  concerning  them." 2 

"  It  certainly  is  one  of  the  most  atrocious  abuses 
that  a  free  subject  should  be  restrained  in  his  inquiries 
into  the  conduct  of  those  who  undertake  to  manage  his 

1  See  Political  Disquisitions,  by  T.  Burgh,  vol.  iii.  p.  250.      2  Ibid.  p.  254. 


CHAP,  v  FREEDOM  OF  SPEECH  177 

affairs — I  mean  the  administrators  of  government,  for 
all  such  are  undertakers,  and  are  answerable  for  what 
they  undertake ;  but  if  it  be  dangerous  and  penal  to 
inquire  into  their  conduct,  the  State  may  be  ruined  by 
their  blunders  or  by  their  villainies  beyond  the  possi- 
bility of  redress."  1 

And  his  very  protests  show  what  the  state  of  affairs 
was  in  this  respect  in  his  time.  Men  were  under  not 
merely  restraint,  but  grievous  restraint,  in  commenting 
on  the  political  conduct  of  the  Government ;  they  were 
hindered  from  saying  what  they  thought  on  the  sub- 
ject, and  the  "  atrocious  abuse "  that  a  free  subject 
should  be  restrained  from  criticising  the  administration 
of  Government  undoubtedly  existed.  Time  after  time, 
too,  in  later  years  do  we  find  Erskine,  the  great  legal 
defender  of  the  victims  of  Government  intolerance  of 
free  speech,  reiterating  the  claim  to  freedom  of  speech 
as  if  it  were  necessary  to  assert  it,  so  as  to  prevent  its 
being  lost  altogether. 

Again  and  again,  on  the  other  hand,  shall  we  find 
the  most  extravagant  ideas  given  expression  to,  even 
by  some  of  the  ablest  men,  against  the  people  enjoying 
liberty  of  speech,  and  protest  after  protest  against 
comment  by  the  public  on  the  affairs  of  Government. 

It  is  hard  now  to  realise  how  limited  freedom  of 
speech  was,  and  how  effective  was  the  power  of  the 
Government  to  suppress  it.  The  restrictions  which 
were  imposed  on  speakers  may  be  classified  under  four 
heads,  namely — blasphemy,  immorality,  defamation,  and 
sedition.  As  it  is  only  the  political  aspect  of  the  Plat- 
form which  concerns  us  at  present,  there  is  no  need  to 
refer  in  detail  to  any  of  these  restrictions,  except  those 
which  come  under  the  head  of  sedition  and  defamation, 

1  Burgh's  Political  Disquisitions,  p.  246. 


178         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

for  it  was  in  these  categories  that  any  abuse  of  public 
speech  relating  to  affairs  of  Church,  State,  or  governing 
authorities,  were  brought. 

Speaking  broadly,  the  same  laws  which  were  used 
to  keep  the  Press  under  subjection  to  the  Government 
were  also  used  to  keep  public  speech  within  prescribed 
bounds.  The  control  over  both  was  the  law  of  libel, 
and  as  the  law  on  this  subject  was  capable  of  being 
given  a  very  wide  interpretation  by  the  Government, 
this  control  was  most  powerful  and  far-reaching. 

There  has  ever  been  the  greatest  difficulty  in  defin- 
ing a  libel. 

Sir  Francis  Burdett  once  somewhat  vehemently 
said  :  "  Libel  is  the  easiest  of  all  charges  to  be  brought 
against  any  man  ;  a  man  deaf  and  dumb,  who  can 
neither  write  nor  read,  may  be  guilty  of  libel ;  a  sign- 
post is  a  libel ;  a  scarecrow  set  up  in  a  garden  is  a  libel ; 
motions  of  our  hands  and  fingers  are  libels  ;  " l  but  his 
views  on  the  subject  can  scarcely  be  considered  as 
judicial. 

Blackstone,  expressing  the  judicial  view,  wrote : 
"Every  freeman  has  an  undoubted  right  to  lay  what 
sentiments  he  pleases  before  the  public ;  to  forbid  this 
is  to  destroy  the  liberty  of  the  Press.  But  if  he  pub- 
lishes what  is  improper,  mischievous,  or  illegal,  he  must 
take  the  consequences  of  his  own  temerity." 2 

This  is  tolerably  wide,  but  other  definitions  are  not 
much  narrower. 

The  Lord  Chief  Baron  Comyns,  in  his  digest  of  the 
English  law,  defined  a  libel  to  be  "a  contumely  or 
reproach  published  to  the  defamation  of  the  Govern- 
ment, of  a  magistrate,  or  of  a  private  person,"  terms 

1  See    Parliamentary  Debates,    vol.  2  Commentaries,  vol.  iv.  p.  151. 

xxxvL  p.  507,  1802. 


CHAP,  v  SEDITIOUS  LIBEL  179 

which  practically  included  everything  that  could  be  con- 
strued into  censure,  therefore  no  censure  of  the  Govern- 
ment or  even  of  a  public  functionary  was  safe  in 
England.1 

Lord  Justice  Stephen,2  in  his  great  work  on  Criminal 
Law,  thus  deals  with  the  subject :  "  What,  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  eighteenth  century  was  the  proper  definition 
of  a  seditious  libel  ?  Omitting  technicalities,  I  think  it 
might  at  that  time  have  been  correctly  defined  as  written 
censure  upon  public  men  for  their  conduct  as  such,  or 
upon  the  laws,  or  upon  the  institutions  of  the  country. 
This  is  the  substance  of  Coke's  case,  De  libellis  famosis, 
which  is  the  nearest  approach  to  a  definition  of  the 
crime  with  which  I  am  acquainted.  It  was  a  definition 
on  which  the  State  Chamber  acted  invariably,  and  which 
was  adopted  after  the  Restoration  by  the  Court  of  King's 
Bench.  It  is  in  harmony  with  the  whole  spirit  of  the 
period  in  which  it  originated.  ...  It  was  in  substance 
recognised  and  repeated  far  into  the  eighteenth  century, 
and  was  never  altered  by  any  decision  of  the  Courts, 
or  any  Act  of  Parliament.  That  the  practical  enforce- 
ment of  this  doctrine  was  wholly  inconsistent  with  any 
serious  public  discussion  of  political  affairs  is  obvious, 
and  so  long  as  it  was  recognised  as  the  law  of  the  land, 
all  such  discussion  existed  only  on  sufferance." 

But  there  was  a  still  more  extraordinary  part  of  the 
law  of  libel,  namely  that  the  truth  of  the  statement  made 
could  not  be  pleaded  as  a  defence. 

If  a  man  called  a  minister  a  swindler,  and  was  able 
to  adduce  even  the  most  incontrovertible  proof  that  he 
really  had  swindled  and  was  a  swindler,  the  person 

1  See  two  very  interesting  articles  in  8  A  History  of  the  Criminal  Law  of 

The  Edinburgh  Review  on  the  "Liberty  England,    by    Sir    James     Fitzjames 

of  the  Press,"May  1811,  and  September  Stephen,  vol.  ii.  p.  348. 
1816. 


i8o         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

making  the  statement  would  still  have  been  liable  to 
conviction  and  punishment. 

In  1731,  and  between  then  and  the  time  I  am  now 
writing  of,  the  law  had  not  been  changed.  The  Lord  Chief- 
Justice  of  the  day,  in  dealing  with  a  libel  case,  said : 
"  As  for  your  saying  that  you  can  prove  what  is  charged 
on  the  defendant  to  be  true,  it  is  my  opinion  that  it  is  not 
material  whether  the  facts  charged  in  a  libel  be  true  or 
false,  if  the  prosecution  is  by  indictment  or  information."1 

Blackstone  also  says  (vol.  iv.  p.  150):  "It  is 
immaterial  with  respect  to  the  essence  of  a  libel  whether 
it  is  true  or  false,  since  the  provocation,  and  not  the 
falsity,  is  the  thing  to  be  punished  criminally.  .  .  . 
In  a  criminal  prosecution,  the  tendency  which  all  libels 
have  to  create  animosities,  and  to  disturb  the  public 
peace,  is  the  whole  that  the  law  considers." 

And  then  there  was  another  check  on  criticising 
the  governing  authorities.  The  Lord  Chief-Justice,  in 
the  case  above  referred  to,  also  said :  "  The  law  always 
punishes  libels,  even  among  private  persons,  because 
they  flow  from  malice,  and  tend  to  create  disturbance, 
and  disturb  the  public  peace.  And  the  law  reckons  it 
a  greater  offence  when  the  libel  is  pointed  at  persons  in 
a  public  capacity,  as  it  is  a  reproach  to  the  Government 
to  have  corrupt  magistrates,  etc.,  substituted  by  his 
Majesty,  and  tends  to  sow  sedition  and  disturb  the  peace 
of  the  kingdom." 

The  vagueness  of  any  definition  of  libel,  however, 
would  not  have  been  so  serious  a  matter  had  it  been  left 
to  the  judgment  of  a  jury  of  twelve  men  to  decide 
whether  certain  words  were  libellous  or  not ;  but  at  this 
time,  and  up  to  1792,  it  was  not  the  jury  who  decided 
whether  the  words  were  a  libel,  but  the  judge. 

1  State  Trials,  vol.  xvii.  pp.  658,  659. 


CHAP,  v  JURIES  AND  LIBEL  CASES  181 

Burke,  in  one  of  his  usual  eloquent  speeches,  has 
stated  the  case  far  better  than  it  can  otherwise  be  done. 
He  said  :  "  It  is  the  very  ancient  privilege  of  the  people 
of  England  that  they  shall  be  tried  (except  in  the  known 
exceptions)  not  by  judges  appointed  by  tht  Crown,  but 
by  their  own  fellow-subjects,  and  out  of  this  principle 
the  trial  by  juries  has  grown.  There  is  one  case  in 
which,  without  directly  contesting  this  principle,  the 
whole  substance,  energy,  and  virtue  of  the  privilege  is 
taken  out  of  it — that  is,  in  the  case  of  a  trial  by  indictment 
or  information  for  a  libel.  The  doctrine  in  that  case, 
laid  down  by  several  judges,  amounts  to  this :  that  the 
jury  have  no  competence  where  a  libel  is  alleged,  except 
to  find  the  gross  corporeal  facts  of  the  writing  and  the 
publication,  together  with  the  identity  of  the  things  and 
persons  to  which  it  refers ;  but  that  the  intent  and 
tendency  of  the  work,  in  which  intent  and  tendency  the 
whole  criminality  consists,  is  the  sole  and  exclusive 
province  of  the  judge.  Thus  having  reduced  the  jury  to 
the  cognisance  of  facts  not  in  themselves  presumptively 
criminal,  but  actions  neutral  and  indifferent,  the  whole 
matter,  in  which  the  subject  has  any  concern  or  interest, 
is  taken  out  of  the  hands  of  the  jury." 

In  1770  this  subject  was  brought  before  both 
Houses  of  Parliament.  Serjeant  Grlynn,  who  introduced 
it  in  the  House  of  Commons,  said  : 2  "In  the  case  of  a 
libel,  for  example,  the  jury  is  only  permitted  to  deter- 
mine whether  it  was  published  by  the  culprit,  and 
whether  it  is  applicable  to  the  person  stated  in  the 
indictment  or  information.  Whether  he  designed  to  do 
an  injury  or  service,  is  declared  totally  immaterial  to 
them.  They  must  bring  him  in  guilty.  The  malice  or 

1  Parliamentary  History,  1771,  vol.  8  Ibid.  vol.  xvi.  p.  1213  (6th  Decem- 

xvii.  p.  44.  ber  1770).  , 


i82         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND   PROGRESS      PART  i 

"  innocence  must  be  left  as  a  matter  of  future  considera- 
tion to  the  judge,  who  must  give  each  its  due  weight  as 
an  aggravation  or  extenuation  according  to  the  nature 
of  the  case." 

The  Solicitor  -  General  Thurlow  (afterwards  Lord 
Chancellor)  defended  the  practice  on  the  ground  that 
the  jurors  were  not  qualified  to  judge. 

In  the  following  year  leave  was  moved  for  to  bring 
in  a  Bill  which  proposed  to  enact  that  the  jury  should 
be  held  and  reputed  competent  to  all  intents  and  pur- 
poses, in  law  and  in  right,  to  try  every  part  of  the 
matter  laid  or  charged  in  an  indictment  (for  a  seditious 
libel)  comprehending  the  criminal  intention  of  the 
defendant,  and  the  civil  tendency  of  the  libel  charged, 
as  well  as  the  mere  fact  of  the  publication  thereof,  and 
its  application.1 

The  change  of  the  law  was  sought,  not  on  account  of 
the  Platform,  but  on  account  of  the  Press ;  and  it  is  an 
instructive  fact  that  not  one  single  reference  is  made  in 
the  course  of  the  debate  to  a  speech  at  a  public  meeting 
— a  tolerably  conclusive  proof  that,  despite  the  Middle- 
sex Election  Agitation,  the  Platform  had  not,  up  to  1771, 
risen  to  such  importance  as  to  require  any  alteration  of 
the  law  so  far  as  it  was  concerned.  The  Bill,  it  need 
scarcely  be  said,  was  defeated  by  a  large  majority. 

But  it  was  not  only  in  the  wide-covering  scope  of 
the  law  of  seditious  libel  that  its  terror  lay,  but  also  in 
the  manner  in  which  it  could  be  enforced,  and  the 
penalties  it  entailed.  The  procedure  by  which  the  law 
was  put  in  action  was  very  summary.  The  alleged 
libeller  might  be  put  upon  his  trial  by  an  "informa- 
tion "  which  the  Attorney-General  had  ex  officio  a  right 
to  file  of  his  own  mere  motion. 

1  Parliamentary  History,  1771,  vol.  xvii.  p.  43. 


CHAP,  v  EX-OFFICIO  INFORMATIONS  183 

There  was  no  exaggeration  in  the  description  given 
in  1770  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  this  subject:1 
"  The  Attorney-General,  of  his  own  mere  motion,  or  by 
the  mandate  of  a  Secretary  of  State,  christens  any 
paper  by  what  name  he  pleases.  He  calls  it  an  in- 
famous, a  seditious,  or  treasonable  libel.  After  this 
arbitrary  construction,  this  discretionary  name,  he  files 
an  information,  and  commences  a  prosecution,  without 
hearing  any  evidence,  without  examining  a  single 
witness,  without  receiving  any  other  affidavit,  without 
making  the  least  previous  inquiry.  Can  anything 
savour  more  of  tyranny  and  despotism  ? " 

When  an  ex  officio  information  was  filed  no  oath 
was  required ;  the  Crown  officer  merely  informed  the 
Court  that  the  defendant  had  published  a  certain  libel, 
and  this  put  him  on  his  trial.  The  defendant,  however, 
had  no  means  of  forcing  on  the  trial,  as  the  Crown 
officer  might  keep  the  prosecution  hanging  over  his 
head  for  years,  and  then  bring  it  on  at  any  moment  for 
trial.  The  defendant,  moreover,  was  by  this  process 
put  on  his  trial  without  the  preliminary  hearing  of  his 
case  by  a  Grand  Jury — not  that  that  was  much  of  a 
protection  in  those  days.  If  the  defendent  was  con- 
victed of  seditious  libel  the  punishment  was  fine  and 
imprisonment  for  two  years,  and  the  pillory,  at  least  in 
England,  for  in  Scotland,  as  will  by  and  by  appear,  the 
judges  imposed  sentences  of  transportation.  And  if  the 
person  charged  was  acquitted,  or  never  tried  at  all,  he 
had  to  pay  the  costs  himself,  it  being  the  maxim  that 
the  Crown  neither  received  nor  paid  costs.  It  is 
evident  from  these  remarks  how  enormous  was  the 
power  of  the  Government  to  suppress  or  curtail  public 

1  See  Speech  of  Captain  Phipps,  Parliamentary  History,  1770,  voL  xvi.  p. 
1128. 


184         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

discussion  outside  Parliament.  The  power  of  filing 
ex  officio  information  was  in  itself  a  tremendous  deter- 
rent, and  even  if  a  jury  afterwards  refused  to  convict, 
still  the  heavy  costs  to  which  a  person  was  subjected, 
and  the  harsh  treatment,  probably  imprisonment,  before 
trial,  were  in  themselves  very  dreadful  penalties. 

There  was,  however,  another  still  more  terrible 
penalty  which  might  be  incurred  by  the  use  of  violent 
words,  and  as  Governments  at  this  time  were  not 
unprone  to  strain  the  law  to  the  utmost,  and  did  not 
hesitate  to  put  the  widest  interpretation  on  expressions 
used,  the  risk  was  not  an  inconsiderable  one.  This  was 
the  risk  of  incurring  a  charge  of  high  treason,  the 
penalty  for  which  was  the  most  ignominious  death. 

The  same  state  of  the  law  appears  to  have  prevailed 
as  regards  high  treason  as  it  did  in  the  case  of  seditious 
libels.  Erskine,  who  must  be  admitted  to  be  an  author- 
ity on  the  subject,  declared  positively  in  1791  i1  "As 
the  law  stood  at  present,  if  a  writing  were  charged  even 
as  an  overt  act  of  high  treason,  the  Court  might  convict 
the  prisoner  upon  the  mere  proof  of  publication,  with- 
drawing from  the  consideration  of  the  jury  the  traitorous 
intention  which,  in  the  language  of  the  statute,  was  the 
very  essence  of  the  crime  " — a  state  of  the  law  which 
had  the  result  described  by  Fox,  that  "  a  man's  liberty 
and  life  might  depend,  not  on  the  verdict  of  twelve 
persons,  but  on  four  lawyers." 2 

This  state  of  the  law  as  regards  libel  continued  till 
1792.  In  1791  Fox  introduced  a  Bill  giving  the  jury 
the  decision  of  the  whole  case,  whether  the  matter 
complained  of  was  a  libel  or  not,  leaving  only  to  the 
judge  the  power  or  right  of  giving  his  opinion  and 
directions  to  the  jury,  as  in  other  criminal  cases.  He 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxix.  p.  580.  2  Ibid.  p.  571. 


CHAP,  v  THE  LIBEL  ACT  OF  1792  185 

said  : l  "  There  was  much  doubt  whether  any  man  could 
really  freely  discuss  the  actions  of  Government,  in 
the  way  in  which  he  apprehended  it  was  the  right  of 
every  man  to  discuss  them,  without  a  greater  risk  to  his 
person  and  property  than  prudent  men  would  choose  to 
hazard."  The  Bill  passed  the  Commons,  but  the  Lords 
put  it  off  till  the  next  session,  1792,  and  then,  after 
some  hesitation,  actually  passed  it.2 

It  would  appear  from  this  review  that  the  power  of 
the  Government  to  suppress  public  speech  was  very 
great.  So  far  as  writings  were  concerned,  they  had 
used  it,  for  the  Attorney-General  said :  "In  the  course 
of  the  last  thirty-one  years  there  had  not  been  more 
than  seventy  prosecutions  for  libels,  out  of  which  there 
had  been  about  fifty  convictions."  (There  is  no  reference 
to  any  but  printed.)  "  The  law  officers  of  the  Crown  had 
not,  generally  considered,  been  persecutors  of  the  Press." 

It  is  true  that  so  far  the  occasion  had  not  arisen ; 
nothing  either  during  the  Middlesex  Election  Agitation 
or  the  Economy  Agitation  having  given  an  excuse  for 
strong  action  against  spoken  words,  independent  of  that 
concerned  with  the  preparation  of  Petitions ;  whilst  the 
element  of  force  was  so  prominently  employed  in  the 
case  of  the  Gordon  riots,  that  though  their  prime  mover 
was  prosecuted  for  high  treason,  his  acts  were  the 
foundation  of  the  charge  against  him  more  than  his 
speeches. 

We  are,  however,  on  the  threshold  of  more  stirring 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxix.  of   that  Act,    be  defined   (in    general 

P-  555.  terms)  as  blame  of  public  men,  laws, 

8  "The   Libel   Act   (of  1792)   must  or    institutions,    published    with    an 

thus  be  regarded  as   having  enlarged  illegal   intention   on   the   part  of  the 

the  old  definition  of  a  seditious  libel  by  publisher.     This  was   in    practice  an 

the  addition   of   a    reference    to    the  improvement    upon    the    old   law."- 

specific  intentions   of  the  libeller — to  Stephen's  History  of  the  Criminal  Law, 

the  purpose  for  which  he  wrote.     And  vol.  ii.  p.  359. 
a  seditious  libel  might,  since  the  passing 


186         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

events,  when  the  Platform  was  to  reach  a  new  strata  of 
society  ;  and  it  has  been  necessary  to  describe  the  state 
of  the  law,  regardless  whether  it  had  been  put  into  force 
or  not.  The  claims  for  liberty  of  the  Press  were  most 
eloquently  summarised  in  Erskine's  speech  in  defence  of 
Thomas  Paine,1  who  was  tried  about  Easter  1792  on  a 
charge  of  seditious  libel ;  and  as  his  words  apply  equally 
to  claims  for  liberty  of  speech  on  the  Platform,  they  can 
with  advantage  be  quoted  here  : 

"  The  proposition  which  I  mean  to  maintain  as  the 
basis  of  the  liberty  of  the  Press,  and  without  which  it  is 
an  empty  sound,  is  this :  that  every  man,  not  intending 
to  mislead,  but  seeking  to  enlighten  others  with  what 
his  own  reason  and  conscience,  however  erroneously, 
have  dictated  to  him  as  truth,  may  address  himself  to 
the  universal  reason  of  a  whole  nation,  either  upon  the 
subject  of  Governments  in  general,  or  upon  that  of  our 
own  particular  country ;  that  he  may  analyse  the  prin- 
ciples of  its  constitution,  point  out  its  errors  and 
defects,  examine  and  publish  its  corruptions,  warn  his 
fellow- citizens  against  their  ruinous  consequences,  and 
exert  his  whole  faculties  in  pointing  out  the  most 
advantageous  changes  in  establishments  which  he  con- 
siders to  be  radically  defective,  or  sliding  from  their 
object  by  abuse.  All  this  every  subject  of  this  country 
has  a  right  to  do  if  he  contemplates  only  what  he  thinks 
would  be  for  its  advantage,  and  but  seeks  to  change  the 
public  mind  by  the  conviction  which  flows  from  reason- 
ings dictated  by  conscience.  Other  liberties  are  held 
under  Governments,  but  the  liberty  of  opinion  keeps 
Governments  themselves  in  due  subjection  to  their 
duties." 

1  Speeches  of  the  Right  Hon.  Lord  Erskine,  collected  by  J.  Ridgway  (third 
edition),  vol.  i.  p.  420. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION   AGITATION 

THE  French  Revolution,  which  in  subsequent  years  was 
to  afford  to  the  popular  cause  throughout  the  civilised 
world  the  most  powerful  incentives  to  progress,  had  at 
first  but  a  moderate  effect  on  public  opinion  in  England. 

"When  the  origin  and  early  progress  of  that 
Revolution  was  first  known  in  Great  Britain," l  wrote 
an  almost  contemporary  author,  "  it  is  in  the  memory 
of  every  one  that  it  gave  satisfaction  rather  than  occa- 
sioned alarm.  The  nation  had  often  severely  smarted, 
and  was  yet  sore  from  the  consequences  of  the  intriguing 
and  perfidious  conduct  of  the  French  Court.  It  was 
gratifying  to  see  our  old  and  natural  enemy  humbled ; 
and  it  was  pleasing  to  reflect  that  a  numerous  and 
ingenious  people  were  about  to  share  the  blessing  of 
liberty.  Such,  I  have  reason  to  think,  were  the  general 
sentiments  of  the  nation. 

"The  papers  most  devoted  to  the  Ministry  even 
spoke  with  exultation  of  the  progress  of  the  first 
Assembly,  and  foresaw  a  more  happy  alliance  between 
the  two  nations  than  had  ever  been  established  by 
treaties  of  peace,  which  were  seldom  more  than  the 
lucid  intervals  of  mad  ambition." 

1  History  of  the  Two  Acts,  p.  xxxv. 


i88      THE;  PLATFORM  :  ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  i 

Indeed,  soon  after  the  Revolution  had  begun,  a 
general  election  in  Great  Britain  afforded  (June,  July, 
1790)  as  much  opportunity  as  elections  then  gave  for 
a  display  of  national  or  political  feeling,  but  none  was 
displayed,  and  the  elections  passed  over  with  few 
contests  and  with  little  popular  excitement.  Only  6 
counties  were  contested  and  51  boroughs — a  total  of  57 
as  against  74  in  1784.  "It  was  felt  by  the  nation  at 
large,"  wrote  Lord  Stanhope,1  "that  when  Pitt  had 
declared  earlier  in  the  session  that  *  we  are  adding  daily 
to  our  strength,  wealth,  and  prosperity,'  he  had  uttered 
no  vain  or  empty  boast ;  and  that  our  nourishing  condi- 
tion was  in  no  small  degree  the  work  of  his  able  hands. 
Under  the  impression  of  these  feelings  the  triumphant 
Ministerial  majority  which  the  old  elections  had  given 
was  more  than  confirmed  by  the  new."  t 

But  though  political  feeling  was  thus  apparently 
inactive,  a  steady  and  increasingly  rapid  growth  of 
political  knowledge  had  been  going  on,  and  the  people 
generally  had  been  progressing  in  political  intelligence 
and  education.  New  classes  were  rising  into  importance, 
discerning  ever  more  clearly  their  right  to  their  share 
in  the  government  of  the  country,  and  feeling  the 
superiority  of  their  claims  over  those  of  many  who 
already  had  a  share  therein ;  men  were  weighing  the 
system  and  practice  of  Government,  and  finding  them 
wanting;  they  were  examining  the  pretensions  of  the 
governing  powers,  and  were  finding  most  of  them  based 
on  privilege  and  possession  rather  than  on  principle  or 
justice ;  a  spirit  of  searching  inquiry  had  developed 
itself,  rendering,  on  the  one  hand,  ever  more  aggressive 
those  who  discovered  the  subterfuges  behind  which 
authority  frequently  sheltered  itself;  and,  on  the  other, 

1  See  Life  of  William  Pitt,  by  Earl  Stanhope,  vol.  ii.  p.  52. 


CHAP,  vi  POLITICAL  ASSOCIATIONS  189 

those  more  bitter  whose  privileges  were,  with  ever- 
growing vigour,  assailed. 

In  this  intellectual  and  political  progress  the  Plat- 
form had  scarce  been  giving  any  help.  There  were  no 
longer  any  large  county  gatherings,  and  the  numerous 
political  Societies  or  Associations  which  had  sprung  into 
being  were  on  so  small  a  scale  that  most  of  their  work 
could  be  and  was  done  by  other  means  than  the  Plat- 
form. The  Platform  had,  in  fact,  scarcely  as  yet  sug- 
gested itself  to  them  as  the  best  means  of  furthering 
their  objects.  To  practically  the  first  of  these  Societies 
or  Associations,  "  the  Society  of  Rights  "  in  Wilkes's  time, 
reference  has  already  been  made.  Though  of  short 
duration,  it  nevertheless  had  set  a  precedent  to  people 
anxious  to  move  in  political  matters. 

The  County  Associations  of  1779-80,  the  Convention 
of  Delegates  of  1780,  and  the  "  Thatched  House  Tavern 
Association  of  1782"  had  afforded  further  examples  of 
the  advantages  of  association  for  political  purposes. 
The  advantages  were  indeed  manifest.  A  number  of 
men  bound  together  in  association  must  of  necessity  be 
more  powerful  than  individuals,  acting  separately  and 
independently ;  and  still  more  powerful  is  the  associa- 
tion of  bodies.  United,  they  mutually  assist  each 
other ;  they  can  better  propagate  the  idea  for  which 
they  associated ;  they  can  pursue  their  object  with 
greater  energy,  and  persevere  for  a  longer  space  of  time, 
and  they  have  far  greater  weight. 

Thus,  once  the  example  had  been  set,  and  men  found 
that  association  was  possible  under  the  law,  they  had 
recourse  to  it.1 

Another  society,  under  the  title  of  "  The  Society  for 
promoting  Constitutional  Information,"  had  been  formed 

1  Place  MSS.,  p.  14,  27,808. 


igo         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

in  1780.  Of  this  Society  Sir  Cecil  Wray  was  the  first 
president ;  the  Earls  of  Effingham  and  Surrey,  R.  B. 
Sheridan,  Alderman  Sawbridge,  Sir  T.  Sinclair,  and 
several  other  Members  of  Parliament  were  members ; 
Sir  "W.  Jones,  Dr.  Jebb,  many  merchants,  and  a  few 
very  respectable  people  were  also  members.  This 
Society  did  not,  however,  press  the  Platform  into  its 
service,  but  relied  entirely  for  the  furtherance  of  its 
object  on  the  circulation  of  pamphlets,  essays,  and  other 
forms  of  literature,  recommending  annual  Parliaments, 
Universal  Suffrage,  and  vote  by  ballot.  By  these  means 
it  diffused  much  political  information  throughout  the 
country. 

It  did  not,  however,  last  long,  for  it  was  broken  up 
on  the  Coalition  of  Lord  North  and  Fox. 

Other  political  societies  also  gradually  came  into 
being,  most  prominent  among  them  being  "  the  Re- 
volution Society,"  or  the  Society  for  Commemorating 
the  Revolution  in  Great  Britain.  It  had  been  the  habit 
of  this  Society  to  celebrate  the  anniversary  of  the 
Revolution  of  1688  on  the  4th  of  November  by  a 
banquet. 

On  the  4th  November  1788,  the  centenary  of  the 
Revolution,  this  Society  had  a  specially  splendid  com- 
memorative banquet  at  the  London  Tavern,  which  "  was 
on  this  occasion  honoured  with  the  company  of  one  of 
his  Majesty's  principal  Secretaries  of  State,  and  other 
persons  high  in  office  and  in  confidence  at  Court.  Some 
400  gentlemen  were  present.1 

At  the  instigation  of  this  Society  similar  commemo- 
rations were  held  in  the  principal  towns  and  cities 
throughout  the  kingdom,  men  of  all  parties  joining  in 
celebrating  the  event.  On  the  same  evening  the  "  Con- 

1  See  London  Chronicle,  4th-6th  November  1788. 


CHAP,  vi       THE  EVE  OF  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION         191 

stitutional  Club  "  had  a  banquet  at  Willis's  rooms,  some 
1200  being  present,  Horne-Tooke  among  the  number, 
and  speaking. 

Also  a  "numerous  and  respectable  meeting"  of  the 
"  Whig  Club "  was  held,  the  Duke  of  Portland  in  the 
chair,  and  Sheridan  among  the  speakers. 

Thus,  though  the  Platform  was  doing  little,  it  was 
not  quite  in  abeyance  in  these  early  years  of  Pitt's 
administration.  Events,  indeed,  were  occurring  which 
tended  towards  making  its  presence  familiar  to  the 
public.  An  attempt  on  the  King's  life  evoked  from  all 
parts  of  the  kingdom  a  large  number  of  congratulatory 
addresses  on  his  escape,  many  of  which  were  adopted  at 
meetings. 

The  debates  on  the  Regency  Bill,  which  the  unfortu- 
nate illness  of  the  King  gave  rise  to,  occasioned  "a 
general  expression  of  the  public  mind."  A  "  great  burst 
of  loyalty  "  was  heard  on  the  King's  recovery  from  his 
dangerous  illness,  and  those  expressions  "  were  con- 
veyed by  public  meetings  of  all  ranks  of  men,  whether 
in  a  corporate  or  individual  relation." 

And  so  was  reached  the  threshold  of  that  world - 
important  event — the  French  Revolution — which  was 
destined,  amongst  its  many  other  consequences,  to  have 
a  most  powerful  effect  on  the  growth  of  the  Platform  in 
this  kingdom. 

It  was  impossible  that  the  exciting  events  which 
were  occurring  in  France  could  remain  long  without 
affecting  at  least  a  portion  of  the  people  of  England. 
The  very  motto  of  the  Revolution — Liberty,  Equality, 
and  Fraternity  —  must  have  impressed  some.  The 
iteration,  and  reiteration,  of  those  theories  of  natural 
right  which  appeal  so  forcibly  to  many,  must  have 
influenced  others.  There  were  men  in  England  too— 


192         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  I 

whole  classes  in  fact — who  had  grievances  to  be  re- 
dressed, and  whose  condition  could  be  ameliorated 
by  legislation. 

Gathered  in  the  large  towns  were  large  numbers  of 
artisans,  mechanics,  and  working-people,  whose  exist- 
ence was  practically  ignored  by  the  State.  Hitherto 
this  great  and  growing  civic  industrial  population  had 
been  politically  inert  and  lifeless.  As  yet  the  political 
movements  which  had  agitated  the  country  in  parts  had 
not  concerned  them,  or  been  participated  in  by  them. 
Both  the  Middlesex  Election  Agitation,  and  the  Economy 
Agitation,  had  been  confined  almost  wholly  to  the  free- 
holders or  electors.  These  men  were  neither  one  nor  the 
other.  But  now  they  were  beginning  to  feel  the  desire 
for  some  participation  in  the  political  privileges  from 
which  they  had  been  so  rigorously  excluded  ;  they  were 
beginning  to  think  that  they  were  entitled  to  have  some 
voice  in  the  laws  which  regulated  their  whole  existence. 
The  difference  of  national  character  was  such  as  effectu- 
ally to  preclude  the  idea  of  Englishmen  following  the 
cruel  and  bloody  precedent  set  them  by  France.  But 
the  French  Kevolution  had  this  effect  on  them.  It 
stimulated  them  into  political  action,  and  awakened 
among  them  the  desire  and  the  hope  for  such  alterations 
in  the  system  of  government  as  would  mitigate  their 
distresses  and  ameliorate  their  condition. 

The  first  society  which  was  formed  by  them  with 
this  object,  and  the  first  to  rise  into  prominence,  was 
"  the  London  Corresponding  Society,"  and  it  merits 
special  and  particular  attention  as  being  the  sign  and 
token  of  absolutely  the  first  political  movement  of  the 
civic  industrial  population  of  England,  now  growing 
into  consequence  in  the  country,  and  which,  in  after 
years,  was  to  take  so  large  a  share  in  the  political 


CHAP,  vi        THE  LONDON  CORRESPONDING  SOCIETY         193 


as  well  as  in  the  industrial  life  of  the  nation. 
Its  founder  was  Thomas  Hardy.1  Hardy  has  himself 
left  us  a  full  account  of  its  formation.  He  thus  described 
its  origin : 2 

"  The  London  Corresponding  Society  began  in  the 
latter  end  of  1791,  in  consequence  of  a  conversation  I 
had  with  a  friend  respecting  the  unequal  representation 
of  the  people  in  Parliament.  That  conversation  sug- 
gested the  propriety  of  instituting  a  society  with  the 
view  of  ascertaining  the  opinion  of  the  people  on  that 
question  by  corresponding  with  other  societies  that 
might  be  formed,  having  the  same  object  in  view.  The 
idea  was  mentioned  to  another  friend  or  two.  At  last  a 
society  was  formed.  Its  first  meeting  was  held  on  the 
25th  of  January  1792,  consisting  of  eight  persons.  .  .  . 
The  first  Address  and  Resolutions  which  the  Society 


1  Hardy  is  described  by  Francis 
Place l  as  "  a  man  of  a  demure  cast  of 
character,  not  however  affectedly  so, 
but  in  the  utmost  sincerity.  He  was 
modest  and  wholly  free  from  pretence, 
mild,  quiet,  good,  and  brave.  Every 
good  man  who  knew  him  was  his 
friend,  and  he  may  be  said  to  have 
had  no  enemies." 

Erskine  also,  in  his  speech  in  defence 
of  Hardy,  said  :  "  I  will  show  likewise 
his  character  to  be  religious,  temperate, 
humane,  and  moderate,  and  his  uni- 
form conduct  all  that  can  belong  to  a 
good  subject  and  an  honest  man." 

As  I  have  availed  myself  very 
largely,  in  certain  chapters  of  this 
work,  of  the  manuscripts  of  Francis 
Place,  which  are  in  the  British 
Museum,  I  think  it  desirable  here  to 
say  that  I  think  they  give  the  most 
authoritative  and  thoroughly  trust- 
worthy information  on  many  abstruse 
matters  relating  to  popular  movements 
about  which  otherwise  little  informa- 
1  Place  MSS.,  27,814,  p.  9. 


tion  is  available.  Francis  Place  spent 
a  long  life  in  intimate  relationship 
with  the  people  whom  he  described  ; 
and  he  took  an  active  part  in  most  of 
the  events  he  described.  He  was 
a  leading  member  of  the  London 
Corresponding  Society  in  1792,  and 
following  years ;  and  he  has  given 
most  graphic  descriptions  of  events 
and  people  as  late  as  the  Chartist 
Agitation  in  1839.  He  displays  much 
moderation  and  good  sense  in  his 
writings,  and  his  comments  are  frank, 
outspoken,  and  fearless.  That  he 
must  have  been  discreet  is  evident 
from  the  fact  that  he  at  no  time  laid 
himself  open  to  any  action  against 
him  by  the  Government,  whilst  he 
appears  to  have  enjoyed  the  fullest 
confidence  of  his  associates.  He  even 
appears  to  have  been  consulted  at 
times  by  members  of  the  Government. 
2  See  a  letter  published  in  The  Ex- 
aminer, 1816,  p.  718.  Thomas  Hardy 
wrote  this  letter  on  the  5th  November 
1816. 


194         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

"  published  were  dated  2d  April  1792.  From  that  time 
the  Society  became  known  to  the  public.  Societies 
were  formed  in  different  parts  of  England,  Scotland,  and 
Ireland,  in  quick  succession  for  the  same  laudable 
object." 

Hardy  himself  recognised  clearly  the  difference  of 
the  movement  he  was  inaugurating,  and  its  predecessors.1 

After  mentioning  the  County  Associations  of  1780, 
he  says  : 2  "  The  lapse  of  ten  years  took  place,  when 
another  class  of  reformers  started  up,  unknown  to  those 
who  preceded  them.  They  were  of  the  lower  and 
middling  class  of  society  called  the  people.  They  dared 
to  associate  to  demand  a  restitution  of  their  long-lost 
rights.  Those  two  classes  of  reformers  being  almost 
total  strangers  to  each  other,  some  of  those  who  were 
strenuous  for  reform  in  1782  scarcely  knew  those  who 
were  associated  for  a  reform  in  1792.  Many  of  them 
were  so  dreadfully  alarmed  at  the  uncommon  appearance 
'of  thp  reformers  in  1792  that  they  fled  for  shelter 
under  the  all-protecting  wings  of  the  Crown." 

Another  important  society  at  this  period  was  the 
Society  for  Constitutional  Information,  which,  for  some 
time  dormant,  had  been  roused  to  energy  again  by  the 
events  in  France,  and  was  circulating  many  pamphlets 
and  works  of  an  extreme  character;  but  it  did  not 
occupy  anything  like  so  powerful  or  conspicuous  a  posi- 
tion as  the  "  London  Corresponding  Society."  Differing 
considerably  from  these  societies,  both  in  moderation, 
and  in  the  social  position  of  its  members,  was  one  which 
was  formed  in  London  during  the  winter  of  1791-92, 
caUed  "  The  Society  of  the  Friends  of  the  People."  It 

1  See   Place  MSS.,  27,814,   British          a  Place  MSS.,  27,814,  narrative  by 
Museum,  containing  an   unpublished      Thomas  Hardy, 
paper  of  Hardy's. 


CHAP,  vi    SOCIETY  OF  THE  FRIENDS  OF  THE  PEOPLE      195 

originated  with  the  leading  members  of  the  Whig  party 
— Lords  Lauderdale,  Dacre,  and  Kinnaird,  and  also 
Erskine,  Whitbread,  Tierney,  Mackintosh,  the  Duke  of 
Bedford,  and  Charles  (afterwards  Earl)  Grey,  and  some 
hundred  persons,  of  whom  some  twenty-five  or  so  were 
members  of  Parliament.  It  was  formed  "not  for  the 
purpose  of  advocating  revolutionary  doctrines,  but  for 
that  of  supporting  those  constitutional  reforms  and 
changes  which  were  needed  for  the  removal  of  acknow- 
ledged anomalies  and  abuses  in  our  institutions,  and 
which,  if  effected,  the  Society  believed,  would  afford  the 
best  security  to  the  country  against  the  designs  of  those 
who  aimed  at  the  subversion  of  the  institutions  them- 
selves." l 

Its  objects  were:  "First,  to  restore  the  freedom  of 
election,  and  a  more  equal  representation  of  the  people 
in  Parliament ;  and  second,  to  secure  to  the  people  a 
more  frequent  exercise  of  their  right  of  electing  their 
representatives." 2 

In  May  1792  the  Society  issued  a  public  declara- 
tion of  their  principles.  "  We  profess  not  to  entertain 
a  wish  '  that  the  great  plans  of  public  benefit  which  Mr. 
Paine  has  so  powerfully  recommended  should  be  carried 
into  effect ; '  nor  to  amuse  our  fellow-citizens  with  the 
magnificent  promise  of  obtaining  for  them  '  the  Rights 
of  the  People  in  their  full  extent,'  the  indefinite 
language  of  delusion,  which,  by  opening  unbounded 
prospects  of  political  adventure,  tends  to  destroy  that 
public  opinion  which  is  the  support  of  all  true  Govern- 
ments, and  to  excite  a  spirit  of  innovation  of  which  no 
wisdom  can  foresee  the  effect,  nor  skill  divert  the 

1  See  Some  Account  of  the  Life  and          2  See  Parliamentary  History,  1792, 
Opinions  of  Earl  Grey,  by  Lieutenant-       vol.  xxix.  p.  1303. 
General  the  Honourable  C.  Grey,  p.  9. 


196         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

"  course.  .  .  .  We  are  convinced  that  the  people  bear  a 
fixed  attachment  to  the  happy  form  of  our  government, 
and  to  the  genuine  principles  of  the  Constitution. 
These  we  cherish  as  the  objects  of  such  attachment,  not 
from  any  implicit  reverence  or  habitual  superstition, 
but  as  institutions  best  calculated  to  produce  the 
happiness  of  man  in  civil  society  ;  and  it  is  because  we 
are  convinced  that  abuses  are  undermining  and  cor- 
rupting them,  that  we  have  associated  for  the  preser- 
vation of  those  principles.  We  wish  to  reform  the 
Constitution,  because  we  wish  to  preserve  it."1  .  .  . 

These  societies  carried  on  most  of  their  work  by 
publications  and  correspondence ;  and  beyond  the 
speeches  at  their  indoor  meetings,  which  generally  were 
very  scantily  attended,  no  effort  to  use  the  Platform 
was  attempted. 

As  with  the  development  of  the  revolution  in 
France  the  actions  of  the  revolutionists  there  became 
more  violent  and  extreme,  the  excitement  of  the  revolu- 
tionary movement  seized  with  firmer  hold  upon  some 
of  the  ignorant  or  more  designing  men  in  England. 
The  "  Constitutional  Society,"  and  "  the  London  Corre- 
sponding Society,"  began  at  their  meetings  to  pass 
resolutions  reflecting  upon  the  Government  "in  the 
most  intemperate  language,"  and  to  circulate  works 
"  which,  if  effectual,  could  only  bring  the  Monarchy  into 
discredit." 

Other  circumstances  were  rendering  the  Govern- 
ment less  and  less  inclined  to  be  forbearing.  The 
Society  for  Constitutional  Information  voted  an  Address 
to  the  Society  of  Jacobins  in  Paris  in  terms  of  approba- 
tion and  applause.2 

1  See  Lord  Grey's  Speech  in  House          2  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxxL 
of  Lords  in  1810,  Parliamentary  De-      p.  476. 
bates,  voL  xvii.  p.  563. 


CHAP,  vi  PROCLAMATION  AGAINST  SEDITIOUS  WRITINGS  197 

At  last  the  flood  of  hostile  and  inciting  literature 
flowed  so  strongly  that  the  Government  determined  on 
taking  measures  to  check  it;  and  on  the  21st  May  1792 
the  King  issued  a  Proclamation  against  "  wicked  and 
seditious  writings,  printed,  published,  and  industriously 
dispersed," l  and  the  magistrates  were  charged  to  make 
diligent  inquiry,  to  discover  the  authors  and  printers, 
and  to  carry  the  laws  rigorously  into  execution  against 
them.2  It  was  the  first  turn  of  the  screw,  which  a  little 
later,  when  the  Platform  appeared,  was  to  be  extended 
to  it,  and  crush  it,  temporarily,  out  of  existence. 

The  Government  were  also  irritated  by  the  revival 
of  the  hateful  demand  for  Parliamentary  reform, 
especially  as  in  April  1792,3  after  some  few  meetings  of 
the  "  Society  of  Friends  "  had  been  held,  Mr.  Grey  gave 
notice  in  Parliament  of  his  intention  to  bring  the 
question  before  the  House  in  the  next  session.  Pitt, 
without  waiting  a  year  to  proclaim  his  views,  at  once 
declared  his  opposition  to  any  concession  in  the  way  of 
reform ;  and  Burke,  henceforward  to  be  numbered  with 
the  opponents  of  any  popular  measure,  likewise  avowed 
his  hostility.  So  great  a  statesman  as  Pitt  doubtless 
saw  how  vastly  the  introduction  of  a  new  element  into 
the  ranks  of  the  applicants  for  reform  strengthened  the 
cause.  The  intrusion  of  the  civic  industrial  population, 
small  as  was  the  beginning,  boded  contingencies  of  the 
utmost  gravity  to  the  then  existing  system  of  Govern- 
ment. Tainted  too  with  the  poisonous  ideas  of  the 
French  revolutionary  passion,  at  this  very  time  at  white- 
heat,  the  first  symptoms  presented  themselves  in  a 
peculiarly  unpatriotic  and  repulsive  manner;  and  so 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxix.       meetings,   were  sent   to   the  King  on 
p.  1476.  the  issue  of  this  Proclamation. 

2  Addresses,    some  emanating  from          3  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxix. 

p.  1300. 


198         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

the  Government  had  little  difficulty  in  securing  approval 
for  a  stern  and  determined  opposition  to  the  movement. 

It  is  not  a  little  curious  that,  though  the  Platform 
even  then  was  the  symbol  of  popular  action,  the 
Government  themselves  adopted,  or  sanctioned  the 
adoption  of  measures,  which  tended  to  accustom  some 
of  the  people  of  the  country  to  the  use  of  the  Platform. 
At  this  period,  in  their  anxiety  to  suppress  every 
expression  of  opinion  which  did  not  quite  coincide  with 
their  own,  they  sanctioned  the  formation  of  "  loyal 
associations,"  whose  object  was  to  aid  the  civil 
authorities  to  bring  to  justice  the  authors  and  propa- 
gators of  seditious  doctrines,  and  particularly  to  check 
the  circulation  of  "Mr.  Paine's  libels." 

An  association  was  formed,  with  one  John  Keeves  at 
its  head.  "  A  flaming  Address  was  issued  by  it  against 
the  popular  societies.  This  Address,  being  supported  by 
Government,  and  all  their  venal  agents,  alarmed  the 
nation  very  much,  for  all  the  creatures  of  Government 
and  their  dependents  were  set  to  work  to  ring  the 
alarm  bell."  Publicans  were  warned  against  allowing 
the  Societies  holding  any  meeting  in  their  houses,  and 
numerous  prosecutions  were  instituted  against  vendors 
of  what  was  deemed  seditious  literature. 

"  A  monstrous  number  of  committees  of  those  bodies 
called  associations  for  receiving  information,  anonymous 
letters,  and  carrying  on  prosecutions,"  quickly  arose,1 
and  it  appears  from  the  advertisements  in  the  news- 
papers 2  that,  in  the  course  of  the  formation  of  these 
associations,  public  meetings,  generally  of  parishes, 
were  held. 

The  summer  and  autumn  and  winter  of  1792  saw 

1  State    Trials,    vol.    xxii.    p.    936,  3  See    The  Public  Advertiser,    25th 

Speech  of  Mr.  Vaughan.  January  1793. 


CHAP,  vi  STATE  PROSECUTIONS  199 

France  plunging  ever  deeper  and  deeper  into  the  abyss 
of  revolutionary  horrors — massacre  following  massacre, 
blood  flowing  in  rivers,  the  fearful  September  massacres 
crowning  all,  when  thousands  were  remorselessly 
butchered,  neither  age,  sex,  youth,  beauty,  nor  inno- 
cence, being  spared.1  "  That  a  shriek  of  inarticulate 
horror  rose  over  this  thing,"  says  Carlyle,  "not  only 
from  French  aristocrats  and  moderates,  but  from  all 
Europe,  and  has  prolonged  itself  to  the  present  day, 
was  most  natural  and  right." 

With  growing  horror,  and  setting  of  the  teeth  for 
stern  measures  on  the  one  side,  and  with  increasing 
recklessness  and  audacity  on  the  other,  the  autumn 
passed  in  England.  On  the  27th  September  the  London 
Corresponding  Society  sent  an  Address  to  the  National 
Convention  in  Paris.  On  the  9th  of  November — but  a 
short  time  after  the  September  massacres — the  Society 
for  Constitutional  Information  likewise  sent  one  "  full 
of  panegyric  on  the  French  Revolution,  and  expressing 
the  strongest  wishes  for  its  progress  and  success." 

These  were  proceedings  which  could  not  be  endured, 
and  the  Government  increased  its  energies  to  meet  and 
defeat  the  plans  of  the  Societies,  and  to  check  the 
spread  of  the  publications  which  were  being  used  to 
excite  the  passions  of  the  lower  classes. 

"  So  far  from  having  been  remiss  in  his  duty,"  the 
Attorney-General  said,  "with  regard  to  seditious  pub- 
lications, he  had  on  his  file  200  informations." 

Thomas  Paine  was  prosecuted  for  a  seditious  libel, 
and  very  justly  punished  (December  1792),2  but  other 
prosecutions  were  less  judiciously  selected,  and  were 
scarcely  such  as  would  be  impressive. 

1  Some  authorities  state  that  at  least          2  State  Trials,  vol.  xxii.  p.  357. 
6000  persons  were  massacred. 


200         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

Thus  John  Frost  was  prosecuted  for  "  idle,  thought- 
less words  uttered  over  wine,"  as  Erskine  described 
them,  which,  however,  the  Government  thought  deserv- 
ing of  punishment.  Frost  had  dined  at  a  coffee-house 
(on  6th  of  November  1792),  and  in  the  course  of  con- 
versation said,  "with  a  loud  voice,"  "  I  am  for  equality. 
I  see  no  reason  why  any  man  should  not  be  upon  a 
footing  with  another.  It  is  every  man's  birthright." 

Some  one  asked  him  what  he  meant  by  equality,  to 
which   he  answered,   "  Why,  I  mean   no  king !     The 
Constitution  of  this  country  is  a  bad  one."     For  this 
offence  he  was  sentenced  to  six  months'  imprisonment 
and  to  stand  in  the  pillory,  and  to  give  bail. 

It  was  at  this  trial,  which  took  place  on  27th  May 
1792,  that  Erskine,  who  was  counsel  for  the  prisoner, 
asserted  that  "  the  whole  system  of  Government,  of 
which  this  case  was  no  mean  specimen,  came  Upon  the 
public  with  the  suddenness  of  a  clap  of  thunder,  with- 
out one  act  to  give  it  foundation,  from  the  very  moment 
that  notice  was  given  of  a  motion  in  Parliament  to 
reform  the  representation  of  the  people. 

"  Leave, '  he  said,  "  but  the  practical  corruptions, 
and  they  (the  Government)  are  contented  to  wink  at 
the  speculations  of  theorists ;  but  the  moment  the 
national  attention  was  awakened  to  look  to  things  in 
practice,  and  to  seek  to  reform  corruptions  at  home, 
from  that  moment,  as  at  the  ringing  of  a  bell,  the  whole 
hive  began  to  swarm,  and  every  man  in  his  turn  has 
been  stung."  l 

The  reformers  were  not,  however,  deterred  by  the 
action  of  the  Government.  The  agitation  spread  to 
Scotland,  and — most  memorable  fact — the  Platform  was 
called  into  requisition  there  for  the  first  time.  Meetings 

1  State  Trials,  vol.  xxii.  p.  492. 


CHAP,  vi  CONVENTION  AT  EDINBURGH  201 

were  held — one  at  Kirkintilloch,  and  another  at  Miltoun 
— and  then  a  step  was  taken  which  differed  somewhat 
from  ordinary  meetings,  but  also  entailed  the  use  of  the 
Platform.  A  number  of  persons,  about  170,  it  was  said, 
styling  themselves  a  "  General  Convention  of  Delegates 
from  the  Societies  of  the  Friends  of  the  People"  l  through- 
out Scotland,  assembled  at  Edinburgh  on  the  llth  of 
December  1792  for  the  purpose  of  concerting  measures 
for  obtaining  a  redress  of  grievances,  and  for  restoring 
the  freedom  of  election,  and  an  equal  representation  of 
the  people  in  Parliament. 

The  Government,  alarmed  at  the  first  symptoms  of 
the  Platform  being  adopted  for  political  purposes  by  a 
totally  new  class  of  people,  determined  on,  if  possible, 
checking  a  continuance  of  the  practice  ;  and  for  partici- 
pation in  this  Convention,  and  in  the  meetings  at  Kirk- 
intilloch and  Miltoun,  one,  Thomas  Muir,  a  young 
advocate  of  high  talents  and  attainments,  was  arrested 
and  committed  to  prison.  Other  prosecutions  were  also 
commenced. 

The  career  of  the  Eevolution  in  France  was  all  the 
time  advancing  to  the  climax,  and  on  the  21st  of 
January  1793  the  French  King  was  beheaded. 

"A  King  dying  by  such  violence  appeals  impres- 
sively to  the  imagination,  as  the  like  must  do,  and  ought 
to  do."2 

The  effect  in  England  was  great  and  instantaneous. 
The  Whig  party  was  rent  in  twain,  and  some  of  the 
most  distinguished  members  of  the  Opposition,  horrified 
by  what  was  occurring  in  France,  and  disgusted  with  the 
way  in  which  some  of  the  lower  orders  in  their  own 

1  These  Societies  of  Friends  of  the       with   the   Society   of  Friends   of    the 
People  had   no    connection  whatever      People  referred  to  at  page  194. 

2  Carlyle. 


202         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

country  were  coquetting  with  the  French  revolutionists, 
gave  their  full  support  to  the  Government,  forsaking  the 
Liberal  cause,  which,  for  so  many  years,  they  had  led. 

It  was  a  great  blow  to  the  popular  cause,  but  a 
still  greater  soon  ensued. 

On  the  llth  of  February  1793  it  was  announced  to 
Parliament  that  France  had  declared  war  against  Eng- 
land. The  war  spirit  in  England  was  kindled,  and  with 
it,  not  alone  did  every  prospect  disappear  of  any  exten- 
sion of  popular  liberties,  but  those  which  existed  were 
ruthlessly  and  summarily  curtailed. 

Undeterred  by  the  hopeless  prospect  of  success,  and 
the  known  opposition  of  the  Prime  Minister,  Mr.  Grey 
persevered  in  his  intention  of  moving  for  Parliamentary 
reform. 

The  Societies  had  been  active  in  this  direction  in  the 
meanwhile.  Early  in  1793  the  joint  efforts  of  the 
"  Constitutional  Information  Society,"  and  the  "London 
Corresponding  Society,"  seem  to  have  been  directed  to 
the  ostensible  purpose  of  obtaining  Petitions  to  the 
House  of  Commons  "  in  favour  of  Parliamentary  reform, 
and  against  the  continuance  of  the  war."  l 

A  letter  from  the  Corresponding  Society  to  their 
friends  in  Sheffield,  written  at  this  time,  throws  a  good 
deal  of  light  on  the  views  of  the  Society  on  the  subject 
of  petitioning.  The  Society  wrote,  4th  March  1793: 
"  With  regard  to  petitioning  Parliament,  we  are  unani- 
mously of  opinion  that  such  a  Petition  will  not  produce 
a  reform,  yet  from  many  considerations  we  are  now 
persuaded,  that  if  every  Society  in  the  island  will  send 
forward  a  Petition,  we  shall  ultimately  gain  ground, 
forasmuch  as  it  will  force  the  members  of  the  Senate 
repeatedly  to  discuss  the  subject,  and  their  deliberations 

1  See  Report  of  Secret  Committee,  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxxi.  p.  722. 


CHAP,  vi  PARLIAMENTARY  REFORM  203 

printed  in  the  different  newspapers  will  most  naturally 
awaken  the  public  mind  towards  the  object  of  our 
pursuit.  The  nation  once  informed  that  a  reform  in 
Parliament  is  sought  for  in  different  quarters,  gives  rise 
to  debates  in  the  House  of  Commons  (and  is  acknow- 
ledged in  every  rank  to  be  wanting)  will  begin  to 
exercise  their  own  reasons  on  the  subject. 

"  Arrived  at  that  period,  we  presume  our  business 
will  be  nearly  accomplished." 

It  was  on  the  6th  of  May  1793  that  Grey  brought  for- 
ward his  motion  for  Parliamentary  reform.  Petitions  on 
the  subject  had  already  been  presented.  A  few  days  pre- 
viously one  from  Sheffield  had  been  presented,  probably 
the  one  written  for,  and  though  there  was  nothing  in  it 
which  appears  now  to  us  at  all  censurable,  Mr.  Secretary 
Dundas  declared  it  to  be  "  highly  indecent  and  disre- 
spectful," l  and  the  House  of  Commons  refused  to 
receive  it.2  On  the  6th  several  other  Petitions  were 
presented  from  different  places,  and  then  one  from 
"  the  Society  of  the  Friends  of  the  People," — the  text 
on  which  many  a  Platform  oration  was  delivered  in  later 
years.  That  Petition  was  made  the  ground  for  Grey's 
motion  that  it,  and  the  others,  should  be  referred  to  a 
Committee  of  the  House  for  consideration. 

It  was  the  result  of  much  careful  investigation,  by 
very  able  men  ;  its  information  may  be  regarded  as  the 
most  reliable  that  could  be  obtained  on  the  subject,  and 
its  statements  may  be  accepted  with  full  confidence  as 
to  their  accuracy. 

As  so  much  turned  on  the  question  of  Parlia- 
mentary reform,  the  Societies  and  Associations  jus- 
tifying all  their  actions,  meetings,  and  speeches  by 
the  need  for  it,  and  the  Government  policy  being  to 

1  See  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxx.  p.  784.         2  108  against ;  29  for. 


204         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

a  very  great  extent  guided,  if  not  instigated,  by  their 
hostility  to  it,  a  brief  resume  of  the  case  stated  by  the 
petitioners  must  be  given.  In  subsequent  years,  more- 
over, the  subject  so  engrossed  the  Platform  that  it  is 
well,  at  the  outset,  to  have  a  clear  account  of  the  state 
of  popular  representation.  This  is  given  in  the  Petition  of 
"  the  Society  of  the  Friends  of  the  People," l  which  stated : 

"  That  at  the  present  day  the  House  of  Commons 
does  not  fully  and  fairly  represent  the  people  of  Eng- 
land. .  .  .  That  the  number  of  representatives  assigned 
to  the  different  counties  is  grossly  disproportioned  to 
their  comparative  extent,  population,  and  trade.  That 
the  majority  of  your  Honourable  House  is  elected  by 
less  than  15,000  electors,  which,  even  if  the  male  adults 
in  the  kingdom  be  estimated  at  so  low  a  number  as 
3,000,000,  is  not  more  than  the  two  -  hundredth 
part  of  the  people  to  be  represented.  Is  it  fitting 
that  Eutland  and  Yorkshire  should  bear  an  equal 
rank  in  the  scale  of  county  representation  ?  Seventy 
members  are  returned  by  35  places,  'in  which  it  would 
be  to  trifle  with  the  patience  of  your  Honourable 
House  to  mention  any  number  of  votes  whatever,' — the 
elections  at  the  places  alluded  to  being  notoriously  a 
mere  matter  of  form. 

"90  members  are  returned  by  46  places,  in  none  of 
which  the  number  of  voters  exceeds  50. 

"37  members  are  returned  by  19  places,  in  none  of 
which  the  number  of  voters  exceeds  100. 

"52  members  are  returned  by  26  places,  in  none  of 
which  the  number  of  voters  exceeds  200." 

All  which  the  petitioners  expressed  themselves 
"  ready  to  prove." 

1  See  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxx.  p.  788. 


CHAP,  vi         PARLIAMENTARY  REPRESENTATION  205 

"  Religious  opinions  create  an  incapacity  to  vote. 
All  Papists  are  excluded  generally,  and,  by  the  opera- 
tion of  the  test  laws,  Protestant  dissenters  are  deprived 
of  a  voice  in  the  election  of  representatives  in  about  30 
boroughs. 

"A  man  possessed  of  £1000  a  year,  arising  from 
copyhold  or  leasehold  for  99  years,  trade,  or  public 
funds,  is  not  thereby  entitled  to  a  vote.  A  man 
paying  taxes  to  any  amount,  how  great  soever,  for 
his  domestic  establishment  does  not  thereby  obtain 
a  right  to  vote,  unless  resident  in  certain  boroughs. 

"  Eighty -four  individuals,  by  their  own  immediate 
authority,  send  157  members  to  Parliament.  In  addi- 
tion to  these,  150  members  more  are  returned,  not  by 
the  collected  voice  of  those  whom  they  appear  to  repre- 
sent, but  by  the  recommendation  of  70  powerful  in- 
dividuals, and  thus  154  patrons  returned  307  members, 
or  a  decided  majority  of  the  whole  House." 

The  Society  might  have  added  one  more  sentence  to 
elucidate  the  tremendous  import  of  these  facts  :  "  Thus 
the  whole  government  of  the  country  is  in  the  hands  of 
154  persons." 

It  was  a  fearful  exposure  of  the  mockery  of  Parlia- 
mentary representation. 

Grey  said  :  "  Nothing  could  tend  so  much  in  all 
probability  to  deliver  this  country  from  the  present 
dreadful  evils  as  to  have  a  pure  and  uncorrupted  House 
of  Commons,  emanating  freely  and  fairly  from  the 
people."  l 

He  described  the  additional  influence  the  Crown  had 
obtained  since  the  Revolution  :  "  Had  not  the  patronage 
of  the  Peers  increased  ?  Was  not  the  patronage  of  India 
now  vested  in  the  Crown  ?  "Were  all  these  innovations 

1  Parliainentary  History,  vol.  xxx.  p.  799. 


206         THE  PLATFORM:    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  j 

"to  be  made  in  order  to  increase  the  influence  of  the 
executive  power,  and  was  nothing  to  be  done  in  favour 
of  the  popular  part  of  the  Constitution  to  act  as  a 
counterpoise  ?  The  introduction  of  45  members  to 
represent  Scotland  had  also  strengthened  the  hands 
of  the  Crown.  It  may  be  said,  however,  that  the 
House  of  Commons  are  really  a  just  representation  of 
the  people,  because  on  great  emergencies  they  never 
fail  to  speak  the  sense  of  the  people,  as  was  the  case  in 
the  American  war  and  in  the  Russian  armament.  But 
had  the  House  of  Commons  been  a  real  representation 
of  the  people,  they  would  have  interfered  sooner  on 
these  occasions,  without  the  necessity  of  being  called 
upon  to  do  so." 

Well  might  the  Government  and  the  borough 
owners  have  been  alarmed  by  the  publication  of  such 
damaging  facts  as  these,  had  it  not  been  that,  secure  in 
their  own  power,  they  were  able  to  laugh  their  oppo- 
nents to  scorn.  Heavier  ordnance  would  have  to  be 
brought  to  bear  on  them  before  they  would  be  dis- 
lodged. 

Jenkinson  complained  "  That  the  time,  the  mode  in 
which  this  question  had  been  introduced,  were  highly 
objectionable.  It  had  been  introduced  at  a  time  when 
our  Constitution  had  been  threatened  from  within,  and 
when  war  had  been  declared  against  it  from  without."1 

As,  somewhat  later,  for  the  long  period  of  seventeen 
years,  he  was  to  be  Prime  Minister  of  England,  and  the 
persistent  foe  of  reform,  the  views  he  now  expressed  are 
of  some  special  interest,  deliciously,  even  comically, 
inverted  as  they  were. 

"  The  question,"  he  said,  "  should  be  examined  by 
inquiring  what  was  the  end  that  was  to  be  produced ; 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxx.  p.  810. 


CHAP,  vi  AN  INVERTED  CONSTITUTION  207 

and  then  considering  what  were  the  means  likely  to 
produce  that  end.  The  end  was  a  House  of  Commons 
that  was  to  produce  certain  effects.  The  means  of 
obtaining  that  House  of  Commons  were  the  electors. 
We  ought  not  then  to  begin  first  by  considering  who 
ought  to  be  the  electors,  and  then  who  ought  to 
be  the  elected ;  but  we  ought  to  begin  by  con- 
sidering who  ought  to  be  the  elected,  and  then  consti- 
tute such  persons  electors  as  would  be  likely  to  produce 
the  best  elected.  He  thought  the  landed  interest,  which 
was  the  stamina  of  the  country,  ought  to  have  the  pre- 
ponderant weight,  the  manufacturing  and  commercial 
interest  the  next  place,  and  then  those  whom  he  styled 
'  the  professional  people.'  The  counties  and  many  of 
the  populous  boroughs  were  required  for  the  return 
of  country  gentlemen.  .  .  .  The  commercial  towns 
secured  the  election  of  certain  persons  in  that  line, 
and  the  close  boroughs  for  the  election  of  the  pro- 
fessional people.  The  first  quality  of  the  House  of 
Commons  is  that  of  being  a  deliberative  assembly.  If 
public  opinion  is  necessarily  to  affect  their  decisions  on 
every  occasion,  it  will  cease  to  be  that  deliberative 
assembly,  and  members  of  it  will  have  nothing  to  do 
but  go  to  their  constituents,  and  desire  to  be  directed 
by  them  in  the  votes  they  are  to  give  on  every  import- 
ant subject.  Public  opinion,  then,  ought  to  have  a 
certain  weight  in  the  conduct  of  that  House,  but  public 
opinion  ought  never  to  have  so  great  a  weight  as  to 
prevent  their  exercising  their  deliberative  functions." 

One  reads  such  a  speech  as  this  with  astonishment 
that  the  man  who  delivered  it  could  ever  have  risen  to 
eminence  in  the  State ;  with  instruction,  as  a  landmark 
showing  how  far  the  Platform  has  brought  us  from  ideas 
or  theories  such  as  were  here  enunciated. 


208         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

Pitt  once  more  thundered  against  the  dangers  of 
reform. 

"  Last  session  the  subject  had  been  brought  forward, 
I  then  considered  the  agitation  of  the  question  as 
capable  of  producing  much  mischief,  and  likely  to  be 
attended  with  no  good.  The  scene  of  horrors  which  a 
neighbouring  kingdom  then  presented  exceeded  imagin- 
ation far  short  of  what  has  since  occurred.  I  perceived 
forming  within  the  bosom  of  the  (this)  oountry  a  small 
but  not  contemptible  party,  who  aspired  at  something 
more  than  a  moderate  reform,  whose  object,  indeed,  was 
nothing  less  than  to  introduce  here  those  French  prin- 
ciples which,  from  their  consequences,  I  could  not  regard 
but  with  horror.  I  saw,  therefore,  that  while  none  of 
that  good  of  which  moderate  reform  might  be  productive 
was  to  be  obtained,  much  danger  might  be  incurred, 
and  an  opening  afforded  to  wicked  persons  to  subvert 
the  Constitution.  .  .  . 

"  I  thus  found  the  probability  of  good  but  little, 
while  the  mischief  was  of  a  size  so  gigantic  as  to  exceed 
calculation.  ...  I  would  rather  forego  for  ever  the 
advantages  of  reform  than  risk  for  a  moment  the  exist- 
ence of  the  British  Constitution."  l 

He  said  that  there  was  every  reason  to  suspect  that 
the  Petitions  were  the  work  of  a  few  individuals,  and 
therefore  should  have  no  weight  with  the  House.  .  .  . 
"  I  am  sensible  that  ninety-nine  out  of  a  hundred  of  the 
people  of  England  are  sensible  of  the  security  which  they 
enjoy  for  these  blessings  (order,  justice,  humanity, 
and  religion),  from  the  frame  of  our  excellent 
Constitution,  and  so  far  from  wishing  to  touch  it  with 
an  innovating  hand,  are  prepared  to  defend  it  against 
every  attack." 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxx.  p.  890. 


CHAP,  vi          THE  REPULSE  OF  THE  REFORMERS  209 

The  motion  was  rejected  by  a  large  majority — by  282 
against  41 — and  Parliamentary  reform  received  a  blow 
from  which  it  did  not  recover  for  many  years  to  come. 

Pitt,  from  the  fact  of  his  having  changed  his  opinions 
on  the  question,  had  to  bear  the  brunt  of  the  storm 
raised  by  the  reformers. 

"The  disgraceful  triumph  of  that  night  will  long 
be  remembered  by  those  who  were  indignant  spectators 
of  it.  A  Minister  reprobating  Associations,  and  con- 
demning any  mode  of  collecting  the  opinion  of  the 
people  for  the  purpose  of  influencing  the  House  of 
Commons.  He,  who  commenced  his  career  by  being  an 
associator,  and  who  avowedly  placed  all  his  hopes  of 
success  in  the  authority  which  general  opinion  was  to 
have  over  the  House  of  Commons.  He,  who  continued 
a  Minister  in  defiance  of  the  House  of  Commons,  because 
he  supposed  himself  to  possess  the  confidence  of  the 
people.  He,  who  gave  the  first  example  of  legitimising 
and  embodying  the  opinion  of  the  people  against  the 
voice  of  their  representatives.  He  was  the  Minister 
who  adopted  this  language."  l 

After  this  crushing  defeat  Grey  himself  despaired. 

A  year  later  he  took  an  opportunity  to  recur  once 
more  to  the  subject,  expressing  his  hopelessness :  "I 
say  that  from  the  House  of  Commons  I  have  no  hope 
of  a  Parliamentary  reform ;  that  I  have  no  hope  of  a 
reform,  but  from  the  people  themselves  ;  that  this  House 
will  never  reform  itself,  or  destroy  the  corruption  by 
which  it  is  supported,  by  any  other  means  than  those  of 
the  resolutions  of  the  people,  acting  on  the  prudence  of 
the  House,  and  on  which  the  people  ought  to  resolve." 2 

1  See   The  Pamphleteer,  vol.  xxi.  p.  2  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxxi. 

49,  where  this  pamphlet  is  reprinted.       p.  533. 
It  was  published  in  1793. 


2io         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

After  the  rejection  of  the  Petition  in  May  1793,  and 
the  determination  of  the  House  upon  the  subject  of  a 
change  in  the  representation  in  Parliament,  "  the  union 
and  concert  between  the  London  Corresponding  Society 
and  the  Constitutional  Information  Society  in  London 
seem  to  have  acquired  additional  strength."  It  is  soon 
after  distinctly  stated  that  "  more  effectual  means  than 
Petitions  must  be  adopted,  provided  they  are  constitu- 
tional."1 

The  Government  also  thought  more  effectual  means 
must  be  adopted  to  gain  their  own  ends,  and  prosecutions 
followed  fast  on  the  heels  of  each  other. 

In  England  no  Platform  speeches  had  yet  been  made 
that  justified  legal  proceedings,  so  Government  had  to 
content  itself  by  aiming  blows  at  speech  in  other  places. 

A  Reverend  Mr.  Winterbotham,  a  dissenting 
preacher,  was  indicted  for  seditious  words  in  two 
sermons  at  Plymouth — a  good  long  way  to  go  for  a 
prosecution — and  for  each  offence  was  sentenced  to  two 
years'  imprisonment  and  a  fine — and  then  bail;  the 
sentences  to  follow  each  other.2  One  Thomas  Briellat 
was  indicted,  6th  December  1793,  for  "seditious  words 
on  the  17th  October  1792  at  a  public-house";  and  was 
sentenced  to  twelve  months'  imprisonment  and  a  fine 
and  bail.8  One  William  Hudson,  a  doctor,  was  sen- 
tenced to  two  years'  imprisonment  for  "  seditious  words 
in  a  coffee-house  after  dinner  after  two  large  glasses 
of  punch."4 

It  seemed  almost  as  if  public-house  criticism  on  the 
Constitution  was  what  the  Government  was  most  afraid 
of,  or  as  if  the  only  treason  spoken  in  the  country  was 
the  drunken  braggadocio  of  pothouse  politicians. 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxxi.  2  State  Trials,  vol.  xxii.  p.  875. 

p.  724,  Report  of  Secret  Committee  of          8  Ibid.  p.  909. 
the  House  of  Commons.  4  Ibid.  p.  1019. 


CHAP,  vi  FIRST  PROSECUTION  FOR  A  PLATFORM  SPEECH  211 

In  Scotland  a  more  direct  blow  was  levelled  at  the 
Platform,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  had  there  raised  its 
head.  At  the  end  of  August  1793  Thomas  Muir  was 
tried  at  Edinburgh.  His  trial,  interesting  in  many 
respects,  is  specially  noteworthy  for  this — that  it  was 
the  first  deliberate  attack  ever  delivered  against  the 
Platform,  as  such,  the  first  blow  at  freedom  of  speech 
on  the  Platform,  the  first  time  that  any  one  was  put  on 
trial  for  a  speech  made  from  a  Platform.1 

Several  indictments  were  framed  against  him, 
amongst  them  this  one  :  "  The  wickedly  and  feloniously 
exciting,  by  means  of  seditious  speeches  and  harangues, 
a  spirit  of  disloyalty  and  disaffection  to  the  King  and 
the  established  Government ;  more  especially  when  such 
speeches  and  harangues  are  addressed  to  meetings  or 
convocations  of  persons  brought  together  by  no  lawful 
authority,  and  uttered  by  one  who  is  the  chief  instru- 
ment of  calling  together  such  meetings.  Yet  true  it  is, 
and  of  verity,  that  the  said  Thomas  Muir  ...  on  the 
3d  of  November  1792  (or  thereabouts),  having  been 
present  at  a  meeting  in  the  town  of  Kirkintilloch,  in 
Dumbartonshire,  denominated  '  A  Society  for  Reform/ 
also,  at  another  meeting  in  Miltoun  (in  county  of  Stir- 
ling), he  did,  with  wicked  and  seditious-  intention, 
address  and  harangue  the  said  meetings  .  .  .  also 
that  he  advised  certain  persons  to  read  certain  seditious 
books ;  further,  that  he  attended  a  '  Convention  of 
Delegates  of  the  Associated  Friends  of  the  People,'  and 
read  an  Address  to  them ; "  and  a  number  of  other 
charges  which  need  not  be  referred  to.2  Methods  of 
justice  were  rougher  and  readier  in  Scotland  in  those 
days  than  in  England,  though,  indeed,  even  there  the 
law  of  Scotland,  "  arbitrary  as  it  was,  had  to  be  dis- 

a  State  Trials,  vol.  xxiii.  p.  117.  '-  Ibid.  p.  124. 


212         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

"  turbed  to  find  a  name  for  the  offence."  A  man  indicted 
for  a  political  offence,  when  political  feelings  were  run- 
ning so  high  as  they  then  were,  was  shown  little 
favour.1 

The  trial  is  interesting  evidence  of  the  political 
temper  of  the  times,  and  presents  us  with  a  complete 
picture  of  the  ideas  which  then  prevailed,  not  merely  at 
the  bar,  but  on  the  bench,  on  the  subject  of  popular 
meetings,  freedom  of  speech,  and  Parliamentary  reform. 

Muir's  defence  was,  "  That  so  far  from  exciting  the 
people  to  riot  and  insurrection,  he  had  upon  every 
occasion  exhorted  them  to  pursue  moderate,  legal, 
peaceable,  and  constitutional  measures.  He  admitted 
that  on  the  great  national  question  concerning  an  equal 
representation  of  the  people  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
he  exerted  every  effort  to  procure  in  that  House  a  full, 
fair,  and  equal  representation  of  the  people,  as  he  c<5n- 
sidered  it  to  be  a  measure  the  most  salutary  for  the 
interest  of  his  country.  As  he  considered  the  informa- 
tion of  the  people  to  be  the  chief  thing  requisite  to 
accomplish  this  great  object,  he  had  advised  them  to 
read  every  publication  which  had  appeared  upon  either 
side  of  the  question." 

When  the  trial  began,  Muir  objected  to  some  of  the 
jurors,  as  belonging  to  one  of  the  "  loyal  associations  " 
already  referred  to,  and  therefore  not  likely  to  give  him 
an  impartial  trial ;  they  having  already  declared  by 
resolutions,  previously  passed,  that  he  was  among  the 
enemies  of  the  Constitution.  The  Solicitor-General  con- 
sidered the  objection  to  be  of  the  most  extraordinary 
nature,2  and  the  Court  "  repelled "  the  objection,  the 

1  "The  jurymen  were  filtered  into  Sedition  in  Scotland,  by   Lord   Cock- 

the  box  by  a  process  which  made  them  burn,  vol.  i.  p.  80. 

very  much  the  creatures  of  the  Court."  2  State  Trials,  vol.  xxiiL  p.  135. 
See  An  Examination  of  thf  Trials  for 


CTAP.  vi  STATE  PROSECUTIONS  213 

Lord  Justice-Clerk  Braxfield,  a  notorious  judge  of  the 
most  brutal  type,1  stating  that  "  if  the  objection  were 
relevant,  it  would  go  to  every  person  who  had  taken 
the  oaths  to  Government." 

The  first  witness  gave  evidence  as  to  the  speech  at 
Kirkintilloch.  It  was  even  on  his  showing  a  very  plain 
and  very  moderate  statement  on  the  subject  of  Parlia- 
mentary reform  and  its  necessity.  Muir  had  stated 
"  that  the  sole  object  of  these  Societies  was  to  obtain 
Parliamentary  reform,  and  the  means  for  these  Societies 
to  use  was  to  petition  Parliament." 

The  speech  at  the  meeting  at  Miltoun  was  on  the 
same  lines.  Moderate  or  not  mattered  little.  The 
Lord  Advocate,  in  addressing  the  jury,  displayed  a 
political  rancour  which  betrayed  the  bitter  spirit  of  the 
times.2  He  said,  first,  "  the  prisoner  had  circulated 
Paine's  '  Rights  of  Man '  with  an  obstinacy  and  per- 
tinacity which  plainly  indicated  that  his  wish  and 
intention  was  to  overturn  our  happy  Constitution ; " 
secondly,  "  that  he  had  always  been  found  making  sedi- 
tious speeches  and  harangues  among  knots  of  ignorant 
labourers  and  poor  manufacturers,  who,  but  for  him, 
would  have  remained  peaceable  and  contented,  and 
never  thought  of  that  incendiary  Paine,  nor  of  forming 
meetings,  till  he  came  like  the  demon  of  Sedition  ; " 
thirdly,  "  that  he  had  been  in  a  meeting  of  persons 
calling  themselves  delegates  for  obtaining  Parliamentary 
reform." 

In  another  passage  in  his  speech  he  stigmatised 
Muir  as  "  this  demon  of  mischief,"  who  used  con- 
stantly to  be  reading  seditious  publications  in  the  back- 
shop  ;  it  was  there,  in  that  cathedral  of  sedition,  he 

1  Lord  Cockburn  describes  him  as  a       Sedition  Trials  in  Scotland,  vol.  i.  p.  86. 
"coarse  and  dexterous  ruffian."     See          2  State  Trials,  vol.  xxiii.  p.  180. 


214         THE  PLATFORM:    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PARTI 

sat  like  a  spider  weaving  his  filthy  web  to  ensnare  the 
unwary. 

Muir  defended  himself  with  great  eloquence  and 
cleverness,  justifying  his  ideas  on  Parliamentary  reform 
by  passages  from  Locke,  Blackstone,  and  other  great 
writers,  and  by  reference  to  the  conduct  of  the  Prime 
Minister  himself.  "  Can  it  ever  be  forgotten  that  in 
the  year  1782  Mr.  Pitt  was  stained  with  the  same 
guilt  (of  urging  Parliamentary  reform)  ?  Did  not  he 
preach  up  the  necessity  of  a  reform  in  the  representa- 
tion of  the  people  ?  Did  not  he  advise  the  people  to 
form  Societies  ?  and  did  not  he  countenance  these 
Societies  by  his  presence  ?  I  appeal  to  the  resolutions 
which  he  subscribed  in  the  Thatched  House  Tavern. 
...  In  the  year  1782  the  Duke  of  Richmond  was  a 
flaming  advocate  for  the  universal  right  of  suffrage. 
Do  you  not  know  that  he  presided  in  Societies,  and,  like 
Mr.  Pitt,  advised  a  universal  formation  of  such  Societies 
all  over  the  kingdom  ?  Shall  what  was  patriotism  in 
1782  be  criminal  in  1793?"  But  it  was  all  in  vain. 
The  Lord  Justice-Clerk  Braxfield,  not  alone  charged 
direct  against  the  prisoner,  but  in  one  respect  declared 
the  charge  against  the  prisoner  proven. 

"  In  examining  whether  the  prisoner  is  guilty  of 
sedition  or  not,"  said  this  "  coarse  and  dexterous 
ruffian,"  "  there  are  two  things  you  should  attend  to, 
which  require  no  proof.1  The  first  is,  that  the  British 
Constitution  is  the  best  in  the  world.  Is  not  every 
man  secure  in  his  life,  liberty,  and  property?  Is  not 
happiness  in  the  power  of  every  man,  except  those 
perhaps  who,  from  disappointment  in  their  schemes  of 
advancement,  are  discontented  ?  .  .  .  The  other  circum- 
stance is  the  state  of  this  country  during  last  winter. 

1  Stat"  Trials,  vol.  xxiii.  p.  229. 


CHAP,  vi  STATE  PROSECUTIONS  215 

There  was  a  spirit  of  sedition  and  revolt  going  abroad 
which  made  every  good  subject  seriously  uneasy.  I 
coincide  in  the  opinion  that  proposing  reform  is  very 
ill-timed.  I  leave  it  to  you  to  judge  whether  it  was 
perfectly  innocent  or  not  in  Mr.  Muir,  at  such  a  time, 
to  go  about  among  ignorant  country  people,  and  among 
the  lower  classes  of  the  people,  inducing  them  to  believe 
that  a  reform  was  absolutely  necessary  to  preserve  their 
safety  and  their  liberty.  You  will  keep  this  in  remem- 
brance, and  judge  whether  it  appears  to  you,  as  to  me, 
to  be  sedition. 

"  As  Mr.  Muir  has  brought  many  witnesses  to  prove 
his  general  good  behaviour,  and  his  recommending 
peaceable  measures  and  petitions  to  Parliament,  it  is 
your  business  to  judge  how  far  this  should  operate  in 
his  favour.  Mr.  Muir  might  have  known  that  no 
attention  could  be  paid  to  such  a  rabble.  What  right 
had  they  to  representation  ?  He  (the  judge)  could 
have  told  them  that  the  Parliament  would  never  listen 
to  their  Petition.  How  could  they  think  of  it  ?  A 
government  in  every  country  should  be  just  like  a 
corporation  ; l  and  in  this  country  it  is  made  up  of  the 
landed  interest  which  alone  has  a  right  to  be  repre- 
sented ;  as  for  the  rabble,  who  have  nothing  but  personal 
property,  what  hold  has  the  nation  of  them  ? " 

The  prisoner  was  found  guilty.  The  five  judges 
delivered  sentence.  The  first  said  :  "  The  punishment 
to  be  inflicted  is  arbitrary,  and  we  have  our  choice  of 
banishment,  fine,  whipping,  imprisonment,  and  trans- 
portation," and  adopting  the  latter,  sentenced  him  to 
fourteen  years'  transportation. 

The  second  said  :  "  The  crime  of  which  he  was  con- 

1  The  Scotch  corporations  at  this  time  were  dens  of  jobbery  and  corruption. 


216         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

"victed  was  of  the  most  heinous  kind,  and  there  was 
scarcely  a  distinction  between  it  and  high  treason,  and 
fourteen  years'  transportation  was  a  mild  punishment. 
If  punishment  adequate  to  the  crime  of  sedition  were 
to  be  sought  for,  it  could  not  be  found  in  our  law, 
now  that  torture  is  happily  abolished."  And  the  third 
and  the  fourth  of  the  judges  concurred,  and  the  fifth 
also,  after  hesitating  whether  the  transportation  should 
be  for  life  or  fourteen  years,  although  practically  it  was 
the  same  thing,  and  said  :  "  Perhaps  it  is  owing  to  the 
humanity  of  the  Lord  Advocate  that  the  prisoner  had 
not  to  stand  trial  for  his  life." 

And  so  the  first  bolt  was  launched  against  the  Plat- 
form, and  the  first  victim  was  sent  to  his  death  in  a 
penal  settlement  beyond  the  seas. 

All  this  on  the  31st  of  August  1793 — a  long  way 
apparently  from  free  political  discussion  on  the  Platform. 

Within  a  fortnight  another  prosecution — that  of  the 
Reverend  T.  F.  Palmer,1  for  circulating  a  seditious  paper 
— took  place  at  Perth,  resulting  in  a  sentence  of  seven 
years'  transportation, — a  trial  referred  to  here  only  as 
showing  the  energy  of  the  Government  in  Scotland, 
and  as  noteworthy  for  the  views  it  evoked  from  one  of 
the  judges  on  universal  suffrage. 

Lord  Abercromby  said  : 2  "  The  right  of  universal 
suffrage  is  a  right  which  the  subjects  of  this  country 
never  enjoyed ;  and  were  they  to  enjoy  it,  they  would 
not  long  enjoy  either  liberty  or  a  free  Constitution. 
You  will  therefore  consider,  whether  telling  the  people 
that  they  have  a  just  right  to  what  would  unquestion- 
ably be  tantamount  to  a  total  subversion  of  this  Con- 
stitution, is  such  a  writing  as  any  person  is  entitled  to 
print  and  to  publish." 

1  State  Trials,  vol.  xxiii.  p.  237.  2  Ibid.  p.  368. 


CHAP,  vi  OPEN-AIR  MEETING  AT  HACKNEY  217 

Leaving  Scotland,  for  the  moment,  where  the 
Government  could  work  their  own  will  without  im- 
pediment of  any  sort  against  any  one  who  made  use 
of  the  Platform  for  popular  purposes,  it  is  desirable  to 
revert  to  the  proceedings  of  the  reformers  in  England. 
Here  the  London  Corresponding  Society  were  making 
great  advances,  and  by  October  had  attained  such  an 
amount  of  popular  support  as  enabled  them  to  venture 
on  an  open-air  meeting,  and  on  pressing  the  Platform 
into  their  services.  Hitherto  their  meetings  had  been 
confined  to  members,  and  held  in  rooms,  but  on  the 
24th  of  October  1793  a  bolder  course  was  determined 
on,  and  a  meeting  was  held  in  a  field  at  Hackney.  As 
it  was  "  the  first  open-air  meeting  of  the  Society,"  says 
Place,  "  it  caused  a  great  stir  in  London,  especially  in 
the  quarter  of  the  town  where  it  was  held."  As  it  was 
the  first  occasion  on  which  the  Platform  was  adopted 
for  political  purposes  by  a  new  strata  of  society,  and  one 
which  in  aftertimes  was  to  grow  to  great  power  and 
influence,  the  occasion  is  a  memorable  one  in  history. 

Place l  has  left  us  a  graphic  description  of  it :  "  All 
the  streets  and  avenues  leading  to  the  place  where  the 
Society  assembled  were  crowded  with  people ;  it  being 
also  on  the  public  roadside,  a  multitude  of  people 
collected." 

The  Committee  of  Delegates  being  in  the  House 
arranging  and  discussing  some  necessary  points  previous 
to  the  subject  being  laid  before  the  Society  at  large, 
"  the  people  at  the  outside  of  the  railing  which  encircled 
the  field  behind  the  House,  had  attempted  to  break  in 
upon  the  Society ;  some  perhaps  from  curiosity,  others 
from  a  different  motive,  to  disturb  the  order  of  the 
Society.  However,  the  Committee,  being  informed  of 

1  Place,  MSS.,  Hardy,  27,814. 


2i8         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

"  those  symptoms  of  disorder,  sent  a  deputation  of  three 
of  their  number  to  the  Justices,  who  were  at  the  Nag's 
Head,  to  demand  their  protection,  and  to  invite  them 
to  be  present  at  their  deliberations.  The  Justices  with 
great  readiness  agreed  (as  to  the  protection,  but  declined 
to  be  present),  and  stationed  constables  all  round  the 
field ;  and  in  order  to  convince  the  people  who  were 
present  of  the  erroneous  sentiments  which  they  enter- 
tained as  to  the  designs  of  the  meeting,  Mr.  Gerrald 
and  Margarot  and  some  others  harangued  them  from 
the  windows  of  the  House  with  such  effect  that  they  all 
declared  by  universal  acclamation  their  approbation  of 
the  views  of  the  Society."  The  people  outside  "  were 
sufficiently  near  to  hear  all  that  was  read  and  spoken 
by  the  Chairman  of  that  meeting  and  other  members  of 
the  Society." 

All  passed  off  quietly ;  "  not  one  man  among  the 
vast  multitude  that  was  there  convened  deserved  the 
least  censure,  but,  on  the  contrary,  merited  the  highest 
praise  for  their  firm,  manly,  and  orderly  behaviour." 

Once  again  was  the  scene  of  Platform  action  and 
Government  repression  shifted  to  Scotland.  Unde- 
terred by  the  severe  punishment  administered  to  Muir 
and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Palmer,  a  Convention  of  Delegates 
from  the  "  Societies  of  the  Friends  of  the  People " 
throughout  Scotland  met  in  Edinburgh  on  the  20th 
of  October.  No  English  delegates  attended,  but  a  few 
days  afterwards  some  arrived,  and  a  new  convention 
was  summoned,  and  met  at  Edinburgh  on  the  19th  of 
November  1793,  about  160  persons  being  at  it.  Their 
proceedings  were  open  to  the  public,  and  their  resolu- 
tions were  debated  and  adopted  in  the  presence  of  all 
persons  who  chose  to  attend. 

Having  met,  it  changed  its  name  to  "  The  British 


CHAP,  vi  CONVENTION  AT  EDINBURGH  219 

Convention  of  Delegates  of  the  People,  associated  to 
obtain  universal  suffrage  and  annual  Parliaments ; " l  but 
with  the  besetting  folly  of  men  anxious  to  make  them- 
selves remarkable,  they  assumed,  even  to  the  form  of 
date,  "  the  first  year  of  the  British  Convention,  one  and 
indivisible,"  the  style  and  mode  of  proceeding  adopted 
by  the  National  Convention  of  France. 

This  silly  imitation  of  the  French  revolutionists,  the 
affected  use  of  French  phrases,  the  bombastic  and  im- 
perious language  of  the  speakers,  all  gave  colour  to  the 
view  of  the  Government,  that  the  real  object  of  the 
Convention  and  of  all  these  Societies  was  to  follow  the 
French  revolutionists  in  other  matters  as  well — to  sub- 
vert the  Constitution  of  Great  Britain,  and  to  plunge 
the  country  into  bloodshed  and  anarchy. 

The  Convention  met  with  no  interruption  for  a  fort- 
night, but  having  passed  a  defiant  resolution  that, 
despite  any  legislation  to  the  contrary,  they  would  con- 
tinue to  meet  and  act — a  proceeding  which  naturally 
attracted  the  attention  of  the  law  officers  of  the  Crown— 
the  Provost,  and  some  of  the  Magistrates  of  Edinburgh, 
attended  by  a  constable,  "  invaded  the  Convention,"  and 
insisted  on  its  dispersion  ;  and  on  the  following  day  the 
ringleaders — Margarot,  Gerrald,  and  Skirving — were 
arrested,  all  their  papers  seized,  and  prosecutions  insti- 
tuted against  them. 

Skirving  was  the  first  to  be  tried.2  The  charges 
against  him  were — circulating  a  seditious  writing  or 
publication,  being  an  active  member  of  an  illegal  asso- 
ciation, and  taking  part  in  the  Convention,  where  the 
members  "  did  wickedly  and  feloniously  make  harangues 
and  speeches."3  The  Solicitor-General,  in  opening  the 

1  See  Report  of  Secret  Committee  of          2  6th  January  1794. 
the  House  of  Commons,  Parliamentary  3  State  Trials,  vol.  xxiii.  p.  476. 

History,  vol.  xxxi.  p.  731. 


220         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

case,  said,  "  That  the  whole  proceedings  of  the  meeting 
of  the  Convention  were  from  first  to  last  illegal,  sedi- 
tious, and  not  to  be  tolerated  in  any  established 
Government.  .  .  .  The  people  of  Great  Britain,  we 
have  reason  to  be  thankful,  are  represented  in  Parlia- 
ment. The  very  name  of  British  Convention  carries 
sedition  along  with  it.  ...  It  is  assuming  a  title  which 
none  but  the  members  of  the  established  Government 
have  a  right  to  assume.  And  the  British  Convention 
associated  for  what?  For  the  purpose  of  obtaining 
universal  suffrage ;  in  other  words,  for  the  purpose  of 
subverting  the  Government  of  Great  Britain." 

Skirving  was  found  guilty  and  sentenced  to  fourteen 
years'  transportation.  Lord  Swinton,  the  judge,  laying 
down  the  law,  "  that  sedition  consists  in  every  attempt 
to  excite,  by  inflammatory  discourses  and  illegal  associa- 
tions, the  people  to  outrage  and  violence  against  the 
Constitution,  to  hurt  the  public  peace."1 

A  week  later  Margarot  was  indicted.  His  must 
have  been  a  more  flagrant  case  in  the  eyes  of  the  Scotch 
authorities,  for  he  had  come  from  London  as  a  delegate 
of  "  an  association  of  seditious  people,"  calling  them- 
selves the  "  Corresponding  Society  of  London,"  to 
attend  the  Convention.  Among  other  charges  against 
him  was  that  of  uttering  and  making  "  various  seditious 
and  inflammatory  speeches,  tending  to  vilify  our  present 
happy  Constitution,  and  to  withdraw  therefrom  the 
confidence  and  attachment  of  our  subjects-." !  He  was 
convicted,  and  was  sentenced  to  fourteen  years'  trans- 
portation. Lord  Swinton  said  :  "  They  have  pretended 
a  reformation  in  the  Constitution.  I  say,  my  Lords, 
there  is  no  need  for  it ;  our  Constitution  reforms  itself." : 

1  State  Trials,  vol.  xxiii.  p.  597.  3  Ibid.  p.  775. 

2  Ibid.  p.  609. 


CHAP,  vi  STATE  PROSECUTIONS  221 

Joseph  Gerrald  was  indicted  3d  March  1794  "for 
that  he  did  wickedly  and  feloniously  make  harangues 
and  speeches "  at  the  Convention.1  His  trial  was  pro- 
ductive of  a  statement  from  the  Solicitor-General  which 
is  worth  recording,  as  showing  the  preposterous  views 
held  on  freedom  of  speech  by  some  of  the  higher  officials 
of  the  Government  at  this  time. 

"  From  our  birth,"  said  this  illustrious  official 
lawyer,  "  we  owe  allegiance  to  the  Constitution  estab- 
lished at  the  Revolution.  We  are  not  to  venture  to  say 
that  another  Constitution  would  do  better  in  its  place. 
I  say,  by  law  we  owe  allegiance  to  it  from  our  birth, 
and  that  no  body  of  men  have  a  liberty  to  say  we  will 
indulge  in  speculation,  and  there  is  no  harm  in  specu- 
lation. I  say,  that  subjects  of  Great  Britain,  born 
under  allegiance  to  the  Constitution,  have  no  such 
liberty."2 

Gerrald  too  was  sentenced  to  fourteen  years'  trans- 
portation. 

It  has  been  necessary  to  dwell  somewhat  minutely 
on  these  Scotch  trials,  as  they  were  the  first  cases  in 
which  the  action  of  the  Platform  was  the  principal 
ground  of  indictment,  for  public  speeches  in  a  Con- 
vention of  this  sort,  open  to  the  public,  come  clearly 
within  the  meaning  of  "  the  Platform."  But  it  has  also 
been  necessary  to  refer  to  them  because,  as  will  be 
hereafter  pointed  out,  they  were  to  exercise  a  very 
powerful  influence  on  the  popular  mind  in  Scotland. 

The  Government  and  the  "loyal  associations,"  of 
"  word -catching,  libel -catching  men,"  and  that  mor- 
bidly sensitive  portion  of  the  community  which  is 
unable  to  keep  its  head  when  any  political  excitement 
is  in  the  air,  succeeded  in  working  the  whole  country 

1  State  Trials,  vol.  xxiii.  p.  815.  -  Ibid.  p.  937. 


222         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

into  a  state  of  feeling  of  the  highest  tension.  "  Such  is 
the  state  of  the  public  mind,"  wrote  Jeffrey l  in  March 
1793,  "that  I  get  the  name  of  a  violent  man  for 
regretting  the  effusion  of  blood,  and  for  wishing  for 
universal  concord ; "  nor  had  it  improved  by  the  next 
year.  The  able  compiler  of  The  History  of  the  Two 
Acts  also  thus  sums  up  the  intolerance  of  the  Govern- 
ment and  its  supporters.2 

"  To  object  to  their  will  is  to  be  disloyal ;  to  vote, 
speak,  or  write  against  their  measures  is  unconstitutional ; 
and  to  meet  for  the  purpose  of  promoting  a  reform  of 
Parliament  is  first  factious,  then  seditious,  then  treason- 
able ;  first  punished  with  fine,  imprisonment,  and 
banishment,  and  then  threatened  with  death.  I  do  not 
say  that  all  these  are  the  positive  acts  of  Ministers,  but 
they  are  the  declared  sentiments  of  their  supporters. 
And  when  no  distinction  is  made  between  that  regular 
and  constitutional  opposition  to  Ministerial  measures 
which,  in  all  ages,  has  afforded  protection  to  our 
liberties,  and  the  more  outrageous  acts  of  individuals, 
or  the  unreasonable  complaints  and  proceedings  of 
obscure  societies,  are  we  to  wonder  if  a  force  becomes 
embodied  against  Government  which  carries  a  formid- 
able appearance  ? " 

Nothing  daunted  by  the  treatment  which  the  partici- 
pators in  the  Convention  at  Edinburgh  had  received, 
the  two  principal  London  Societies  continued  their 
agitation,  and  towards  the  end  of  March  delegates  from 
them  met  and  agreed  on  the  desirability  of  holding  a 
Convention  "  for  the  purpose  of  taking  into  considera- 
tion the  proper  methods  of  obtaining  a  full  and  fair 
representation  of  the  people,"  and  circular  letters  were 

1  See  Life  of  Lord  Jeffrey,  by  Lord          2  See  Tlie  History  of  the  Two  Acts, 
Cockburn,  vol.  ii.  p.  12.  p.  xlvii. 


CHAP,  vi  MEETING  AT  CHALK  FARM  223 

sent  to  different  parts  of  the  kingdom  on  the  subject  of 
assembling  a  Convention  of  the  whole  island." l 

But  they  did  not  stop  here.  The  open-air  meeting 
of  the  London  Corresponding  Society  in  October  1793 
having  been  so  successful,  and  the  Platform  having 
proved  itself  so  efficient  and  powerful  an  instrument  for 
furthering  their  cause,  another  great  open-air  meeting 
was  announced  and  held  at  Chalk  Farm  on  14th  April 
1794  "on  the  Hampstead  Road,  at  the  bottom  of 
Primrose  Hill,  about  three  miles  out  of  town."  Place 
gives  an  account  of  it  far  fuller  and  more  graphic  than 
the  meagre  particulars  of  it  which  can  be  gathered  from 
the  reports  in  the  State  Trials.2 

John  Lovett,  a  hairdresser,  was  Chairman  or 
President.  "  The  President  stood  on  the  stair  of  the 
Assembly  room  facing  the  bowling-green,  where  the 
Society  were  assembled,"  and  from  that  elevated 
situation  John  Bichter  read  some  letters ;  some  resolu- 
tions were  read  and  agreed  to,  also  several  addresses. 
"  After  the  business  of  the  meeting  was  concluded, 
which  lasted  upwards  of  five  hours,  the  immense 
multitude  which  was  called  together  (independent  of 
the  Society)  of  all  descriptions  of  persons — men  and 
women,  hundreds  from  mere  curiosity,  the  day  being 
very  fine, — in  less  than  a  quarter  of  an  hour  that  large 
body  left  Chalk  Farm  in  the  greatest  order  I  ever 
witnessed ;  they  seemed  all  highly  satisfied,  although 
they  received  many  insults  and  provocations  from  the 
Bow  Street  runners  and  different  police  officers  and 
Government  spies  and  reporters  ;  yea,  from  some  magis- 
trates. .  .  .  Little  did  they  think  what  sort  of  men 
they  were  contending  with ;  they  were  thinking  and 

1  First  Report  of  House  of  Commons          2  Place,      MSS.,      27,814,      British 
Committee  of  Secrecy,  Parliamentary       Museum,  p.  76. 
History,  vol.  xxxi.  p.  488. 


224         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

"reasoning  men,  that  did  not  meet  together  to  call 
out  '  Church  and  King  for  ever,'  without  examining 
whether  Church  and  King  deserved  to  be  held  in  ever- 
lasting remembrance  "-  —true  type  of  the  thinking  man. 

Just  about  this  same  time  the  Platform  was  called 
into  requisition  in  several  places  in  the  provinces,  and 
open-air  meetings  were  held  at  Leeds,  Wakefield,  Brad- 
ford, Halifax,  and  Sheffield.  It  is  evident  that  these 
civic  industrial  people  were  beginning  to  find  the  useful- 
ness of  the  Platform. 

This  Sheffield  meeting,  which  was  held  on  the  7th 
April  1794,  deserves  special  notice — first  because  we 
have  a  very  full  description  of  the  proceedings  at 
it  which  are  in  themselves  interesting,  and  next 
because  one  of  the  speakers,  a  Mr.  Henry  Yorke  was 
afterwards  indicted  on  account  of  his  speech  at  it.1 
There  existed  in  Sheffield  at  the  time  a  Society  called 
"The  Friends  of  Justice,  Liberty,  and  Humanity." 
An  advertisement  was  issued  calling  a  public  meeting 
in  the  open  air,  "  to  consider  the  propriety  of  addressing 
the  King  in  behalf  of  the  persecuted  patriots,  citizens 
Muir,  Palmer,  Skirving,  Margarot,  and  Gerrald,  also  of 
again  petitioning  for  a  reform  in  the  representation  of 
the  people." 

The  advertisement  produced  a  meeting  of  some  4000 
to  5000  persons. 

"  When  it  was  known  that  Mr.  Yorke  was  without 
the  ground,  a  great  move  was  directly  made  from  all 
quarters.  '  Mr.  Yorke,  Mr.  Yorke,  in  the  chair,'  and  the 
crowd  made  an  opening  for  him,  and  he  was  pressed 
forward. 

"  He  was  placed  upon  an  eminence,  a  form  made  for 
the  purpose ;  at  Sheffield  we  call  it  a  tribune." 

1  See  State  Trials,  vol.  xxv.  p.  1003. 


CHAP,  vi  A  SPECIMEN  PLATFORM  SPEECH  225 

Yorke  was  a  member  of  the  London  Corresponding 
Society,  and  had  been  working  in  the  northern  parts  of 
the  country  in  furtherance  of  the  objects  of  the  Society. 
One  witness  subsequently  declared,  though  his  state- 
ment was  contradicted,  that  Yorke  had  said  that  he 
was  about  twenty-two  years  of  age,  and  that  he  had 
been  concerned  in  three  revolutions  already ;  though 
late,  he  had  assisted  the  revolution  in  America,  "  essen- 
tially contributed  to  that  in  Holland,  '  materially 
assisted '  that  in  France,  and  that  he  was  one  who  will 
still  continue  to  cause  revolutions  all  over  the  world." 

Such  was  the  type  of  man  into  whose  hands  had 
come  the  earliest  lessons  in  the  political  education  of 
the  people.  Placed  upon  the  "  tribune  "  he  delivered  a 
speech. 

"  Fellow  -  citizens.  The  day  is  at  length  arrived 
when  fanaticism  and  superstition,  deprived  of  their 
tinsel  trappings,  and  exposed  in  their  native  ugliness 
to  the  view  of  mankind,  slink  scowling  back  to  the  cave 
of  obscurity ;  there  I  hope  they  will  for  ever  remain.1 
The  energy  of  Englishmen  will  no  longer  endure  this 
strange  uproar  of  injustice.  I  trust  my  countrymen 
are  sick  of  religious  and  political  imposture,  and  that 
their  decisive  and  manly  conduct  will  command,  in  an 
imperious  tone,  which  will  take  no  denial,  not  a  melior- 
ation of  these  enormous  abuses,  which  would  be  to 
compromise  with  injustice,  but,  I  trust,  they  will  demand 
the  annihilation  of  corruptions  and  abuses,  and  a 
restitution  of  the  original  rights  of  human  nature.  The 
Governments  of  Europe  present  no  delectable  symmetry 
to  the  contemplation  of  the  philosopher,  no  enjoyment 
to  the  satisfaction  of  the  citizen.  A  vast  deformed  and 
cheerless  structure,  the  frightful  abortion  of  haste  and 

1  State  Trials,  vol.  xxv.  p.  1006. 


226         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

"  usurpation,  presents  to  the  eye  of  the  beholder  no 
systematic  arrangement,  no  harmonious  organisation  of 
society.  Chance,  haste,  faction,  tyranny,  rebellion, 
massacre,  and  the  hot  inclement  action  of  human 
passions  have  begotten  them.  Utility  never  has  been 
the  end  of  their  institution,  but  partial  interest  has 
been  its  fruit.  Such  abominable  and  such  absurd  forms, 
such  jarring  and  dissonant  principles,  which  chance  has 
scattered  over  the  earth,  cry  aloud  for  something  more 
natural,  more  pure,  and  more  calculated  to  promote  the 
happiness  of  mankind.  It  must  be  granted  that  this 
experience  is  important,  because  it  teaches  the  suffering 
nations  of  the  present  day  in  what  manner  to  prepare 
their  combustible  ingredients,  and  humanists  in  what 
manner  to  enkindle  them,  so  as  to  produce  with  effect 
that  grand  political  explosion  which,  at  the  same  time 
that  it  buries  despotism,  already  convulsive  and 
agonising,  in  ruins,  may  raise  up  the  people  to  the 
dignity  and  sublime  grandeur  of  freedom.  .  .  .  Go  on 
as  you  hitherto  have  done  in  the  culture  of  reason. 
Disseminate  throughout  the  whole  of  your  country  that 
knowledge  which  is  so  necessary  to  man's  happiness, 
and  which  you  have  yourselves  acquired. 

"  Teach  your  children,  and  your  countrymen,  the 
sacred  lessons  of  virtue,  which  are  the  foundation  of  all 
human  polity.  Teach  them  to  respect  themselves,  and 
to  love  their  country.  Teach  them  to  do  unto  all 
men  as  they  would  that  they  should  do  unto  them,  and 
their  love  shall  not  be  confined  to  their  country,  but 
shall  extend  to  the  whole  human  race. 

"  When  such  a  revolution  of  sentiment  shall  have 
dispersed  the  mists  of  prejudice,  when,  by  the  incessant 
thunderings  from  the  Press,  the  meanest  cottager  of  our 
country  shall  be  enlightened,  and  the  sun  of  reason  shall 


CHAP,  vi  A  RAID  ON  THE  SOCIETIES  227 

shine  in  its  fullest  meridian  over  us,  then  the  command- 
ing voice  of  the  whole  people  shall  recommend  the  558 
gentlemen  in  St.  Stephen's  Chapel  to  go  about  their 
business." 

A  resolution  was  passed  that,  "  Convinced  of  this 
truth,  it  is  the  opinion  of  this  meeting  that  the  people 
ought  to  demand  as  a  right,  and  not  petition  as  a 
favour,  for  universal  representation.  That,  therefore, 
we  will  petition  the  House  of  Commons  no  more  on 
the  subject."1 

One  little  touch  of  nature  vivifies  the  whole  occur- 
rence. "  There  were  constables  there,"  and  one  of  these 
constables,  who  afterwards  gave  evidence,  said,  "  The 
people  made  a  great  noise  about  me,  and  would  not 
suffer  me  to  hear ;  several  that  were  round  me." 2 

Yorke  subsequently  published  a  copy  of  his  speech 
which  rendered  a  prosecution  against  him  possible ; 
but  as  that  did  not  take  place  for  more  than  a  year,  the 
details  of  his  trial  must  be  postponed.3 

The  idea  of  holding  a  Convention  became  more 
definite.  The  "  Society  of  the  Friends  of  the  People  " 
declined  to  join  it,  "  fearing  it  would  furnish  the  enemies 
of  reform  with  the  means  of  calumniating  its  advocates, 
and  so  far  from  forwarding  the  cause,  would  deter  many 
from  countenancing  that  which  they  approve." 

The  Government  policy  also  became  more  definite 
and  vigorous.  Suddenly,  and  before  any  of  the  arrange- 
ments for  the  Convention  could  be  completed,  a  great 
coup  was  made.  Several  of  the  most  prominent  men  in 
the  two  Societies — Hardy,  Thelwall,  Tooke,  and  others 
were  arrested,  and  their  papers  seized.  Parliament  was 

1  Second  Report  of  Secret  Committee  2  State  Trials,  vol.  xxv.  p.  1059. 

of  House  of  Commons. — Parliamentary          3  Tried  23d  July  1795. 
History,  vol.  xxxi.  p.  736. 


228         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

informed  by  Royal  Message  on  th'e  12th  May  1794  that 
"  His  Majesty,  having  received  information  that  the 
seditious  practices  which  have  been  for  some  time  carried 
on  by  certain  Societies  in  London,  in  correspondence 
with  Societies  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  had 
lately  been  pursued  with  increased  activity  and  bold- 
ness, and  had  been  avowedly  directed  to  the  object  of 
assembling  a  pretended  general  Convention  of  the  people 
in  contempt  and  defiance  of  the  authority  of  Parliament 
.  .  .  and  directly  tended  to  the  introduction  of  that 
system  of  anarchy  and  confusion  which  has  fatally  pre- 
vailed in  France." l  He  had  given  directions  for  seizing 
the  papers  and  books  of  the  said  Societies.  His  orders 
had  been  carried  out,  and  he  accordingly  referred  the 
papers  which  had  been  seized  to  Parliament.  Special 
Secret  Committees  of  both  Houses  were  at  once 
appointed  to  consider  them,  and  on  16th  May  the  Com- 
mittee of  the  House  of  Commons  reported.  They  said 
that "  the  books,  etc.,  contained  a  full  account  of  the 
proceedings  of  the  Societies  calling  themselves  '  The 
Society  for  Constitutional  Information,'  and  '  The  London 
Corresponding  Society,'  which  appear  to  be  closely  con- 
nected with  other  Societies  in  many  parts  of  Great 
Britain,"  and  they  went  on  to  express  the  gravamen  of 
the  charge  against  the  Societies  in  these  words  : 

"It  is  impossible  not  to  conclude  that  the  measures 
which  have  been  stated  are  directed  to  the  object  of 
assembling  a  meeting  which,  under  the  name  of  a 
general  Convention,  may  take  upon  itself  the  character 
of  a  general  representation  of  the  people.  However,  at 
different  periods,  the  term  of  Parliamentary  reform  may 
have  been  employed,  it  is  obvious  that  the  present  view 
of  these  Societies  is  not  intended  to  be  prosecuted  by 

1  Parliamentary  History,  1794,  vol.  xxxi.  p.  471. 


CHAP,  vi     SUSPENSION  OF  THE  HABEAS  CORPUS  ACT      229 

any  application  to  Parliament,  but,  on  the  contrary,  by 
an  open  attempt  to  supersede  the  House  of  Commons  in 
its  representative  capacity,  and  to  assume  to  itself  all 
the  functions  and  powers  of  a  national  legislature." l 
"  The  Committee  are  satisfied  that  the  design  now  openly 
professed  and  acted  upon  aims  at  nothing  less  than 
what  is  stated  in  his  Majesty's  message,  and  must  be 
considered  as  a  traitorous  conspiracy  for  the  subversion 
of  the  established  laws  and  constitution,  and  the  intro- 
duction of  that  system  of  anarchy  and  confusion  which 
has  fatally  prevailed  in  France." 

Fortified  with  this  report,  Pitt,  on  the  16th  of  May 
1794,  moved  the  suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act, 
so  far  as  related  to  any  one  charged  with  high  treason, 
the  suspicion  of  high  treason,  or  treasonable  practices. 
The  preamble  of  the  Bill  (34  Geo.  III.  cap.  54) 
declared  that  "  a  traitorous  and  detestable  conspiracy 
has  been  formed  for  subverting  the  existing  laws  and 
constitution,  and  for  introducing  the  system  of  anarchy 
and  confusion  which  has  so  fatally  prevailed  in  France  " ; 
and  the  Bill  proposed  to  enact  that  any  one  charged 
with  high  treason,  suspicion  of  high  treason,  or  treason- 
able practices,  might  be  apprehended  and  detained  in 
custody  by  warrant  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  etc.,  until 
the  1st  February  1795, — the  practical  effect  of  which 
was  "  that  his  Majesty  might  cause  to  be  apprehended 
and  kept  in  jail  any,  and  consequently  every,  person 
whom  he,  that  is,  his  Ministers,  might  think  or  sus- 
pect of  conspiracy  against  his  Majesty's  person  or 
Government." 

Pitt  said  that  "  so  formidable  a  conspiracy  had  never 
before  existed,"  and  that  the  whole  "  system  of  insur- 
rection would  appear  to  be  laid  in  the  modern  doctrine 

1  See  The  Report  of  the  Committee,  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxxi.  p.  495. 


230         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

"  of  the  rights  of  man,  that  monstrous  doctrine  under 
which  the  weak  and  ignorant,  who  are  most  susceptible 
of  impression  from  such  barren  abstract  positions,  were 
attempted  to  be  seduced  to  overturn  government,  law, 
property,  security,  religion,  order,  and  everything  valu- 
able in  this  country,  as  men  acting  upon  the  same  ideas 
had  already  overturned  and  destroyed  everything  in 
France,  and  disturbed  the  peace  and  endangered  the 
safety,  if  not  the  existence,  of  every  nation  in  Europe."  l 

The  proposal  was  vehemently,  but  of  course  fruit- 
lessly, resisted  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Fox  de- 
clared :  "It  was  no  less  than  giving  to  the  Executive 
authority  absolute  power  over  the  personal  liberty  of 
every  individual  in  the  kingdom.  .  .  .  That  which 
every  man  was  entitled  to  do,  delivering  the  sentiments 
of  his  heart  upon  the  affairs  of  government,  for  the 
benefit  of  the  public,  would  be  at  an  end ; "  and  a  little 
later  he  again  spoke  and  said  :  "To  deny  to  the  people 
the  right  of  discussion,  because,  upon  some  occasions,  that 
right  had  been  exercised  by  indiscreet  or  bad  men,  was 
what  he  could  not  subscribe  to.  The  right  of  popular 
discussion  was  a  salutary  and  essential  privilege  of  the 
subject.  He  could  not  answer  long  for  the  conduct  of 
Parliament,  if  it  were  not  subject  to  the  jealousy  of  the 
people.  .  .  .  The  best  security  for  the  due  mainten- 
ance ol  the  Constitution  was  in  the  strict  and  incessant 
vigilance  of  the  people  over  Parliament  itself.  Meet- 
ings of  the  people  therefore,  for  the  discussion  of  public 
objects,  were  not  merely  legal,  but  laudable. "; 

In  the  House  of  Lords  the  Government  view  found 
naturally  more  unrestrained  expression  than  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  When  the  Bill  got  there,  Lord 
Grenville  (Secretary  of  State)  said  that  at  a  meeting  of 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxxi.  p.  497.  2  Ibid.  p.  560. 


CHAP,  vi        THE  RUPTURE  OF  THE  WHIG  PARTY  231 

the  London  Corresponding  Society,  on  the  20th  of 
January  1794,  at  which  2000  people  were  present,  the 
speakers  "proceeded  to  animadvert  on  Parliament  in  a 
strain  too  indecent  for  their  Lordships  to  hear  re- 
peated "  ;  and  he  went  on  :  "It  was  stated  that  they 
looked  for  Parliamentary  reform  by  legal  means ;  but 
was  any  man  simple  enough  to  believe  that  they  were 
sincere  in  this  declaration  ?  The  object  of  the  authors 
of  these  proceedings  was  not  a  Parliamentary  reform, 
but  the  destruction  of  our  monarchy,  the  destruction  of 
that  House,  and  the  destruction  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, the  subversion  of  all  law,  order,  rank,  distinction, 
and  property."  l 

The  Bill  passed,  and  immediately  after  the  proro- 
gation of  Parliament,  the  desertion  of  the  people  by 
those  who  should  have  been  leading  them,  and  keep- 
ing them  from  extreme  courses,  received  its  formal  com- 
pletion in  the  admission  of  the  Duke  of  Portland,  and 
other  leaders  of  the  Whig  party,  into  office  with  the 
Tories. 

"  The  great  Whig  party  which  Fox  led  had  broken 
off  into  two  divisions  :  the  one  imbibed,  even  more  than 
the  Minister,  those  alarms  of  Democracy  which  there 
wanted  nothing  but  firmness  and  calm  temper  to  dissi- 
pate ;  the  other  embracing  speculations  of  reform,  for 
which  the  country  was  little  prepared,  frightened  lovers 
of  peace." : 

This  Coalition  between  the  Tories  and  these  Whig 
leaders,  which  was  regarded  with  wide  approbation 
at  the  time  as  giving  proof  of  the  cessation  of  party 
strife  arid  feeling  in  the  face  of  grave  national  danger, 
had  the  unfortunate  effect  of  depriving  a  considerable 
section  of  the  people  of  their  natural  leaders,  just  at 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxxi.  p.  579.         2  See  Russell's  Fox,  vol.  iii.  p.  23. 


232         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

the  time  that  they  were  most  in  want  of  counsel  and 
guidance. 

Erskine,  in  a  speech  delivered  in  the  following  year 
(17th  November  1795),  said  that,  "in  the  whole  of  the 
late  proceedings  and  events,  one  of  the  most  fatal  things 
had  been  that  the  higher  orders  of  the  people  separated 
themselves  too  much  from  the  lower  " ;  and  to  point  the 
moral  of  his  observation,  he  added,  "  This  has  been  one 
of  the  causes  of  the  revolution  in  France."  l 

Impartial  investigators  of  the  events  of  this  period 
can,  I  think,  form  but  one  judgment  as  regards  the 
policy  of  the  Government  in  dealing  with  the  action  of 
these  Societies,  and  that  is,  that  the  Government  was 
wholly  mistaken  as  to  the  gravity  of  the  popular  agita- 
tion at  home.  That  agitation  never  had  any  real  force 
or  strength  ;  never  was  there  for  even  one  moment  the 
slightest  possibility  of  these  Societies  and  their  mem- 
bers making  any  formidable  demonstration  against  the 
Government,  much  less  a  successful  one.  The  more  the 
evidence  is  sifted,  the  more  irresistibly  is  one  impelled 
to  this  ccnclusion.  The  whole  plans  of  the  Societies 
were  so  crude,  their  whole  resources  so  paltry,  their 
leaders  so  incapable,  their  numbers,  when  compared 
with  the  rest  of  the  population,  so  insignificant,  that 
they  had  no  real  power  to  hurt  the  Government.  But 
this  is  sure, — they  served  as  an  excuse  to  the  Govern- 
ment to  crush  what  was  behind  them — to  crush  out  the 
spirit  of  inquiry  which  was  already  becoming  too 
curious  in  the  affairs  of  Government,  to  crush  out  the 
demand  for  the  reform  of  abuses  which  were  incapable  of 
defence,  to  silence  that  public  discussion  on  those  affairs, 
and  institutions,  and  actions  of  the  Government  which 
would  not  bear  discussion.  Herein  lay  the  secret  of  the 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxxii.  p.  313. 


CHAP,  vi     SUSPENSION  OF  THE  HABEAS  CORPUS  ACT      233 

Government  energy,  and  of  the  frantic  virulence  of 
their  dependents.  Privilege  was  endangered,  abuses 
threatened ;  those  who  were  interested  in  maintaining 
these  evils  became  wild ;  hence  the  blatant  loud-mouth- 
edness,  the  transparent  falsehoods,  the  vehement  vin- 
dictiveness  displayed  in  the  speeches  of  member  after 
member  both  of  the  House  of  Commons  and  of  the 
House  of  Lords.  The  Parliamentary  history  of  the 
closing  years  of  the  last  century  is  full  of  splendid  elo- 
quence— examples  of  the  highest  oratory  ;  but  it  is  full, 
too,  of  examples  of  the  meanest,  basest  selfishness — the 
lowest  depth  to  which  Parliamentary  speech  can  be 
degraded.  The  Government  had  ample  powers  in  the 
rough  crude  state  of  the  law  that  then  existed  to  deal 
with  meetings,  and  speeches,  and  "libels."  That  they 
were  not  content  with  them  proves,  I  think,  conclu- 
sively that  they  wanted  to  check  criticism  on  themselves, 
and  to  strike  a  crushing  blow  at  liberty  of  opinion  and 
freedom  of  speech. 

The  Act  suspending  the  Habeas  Corpus  was  not 
allowed  to  remain  a  dead  letter.  Many  persons  were 
arrested  and  confined  without  any  hope  of  being 
brought  to  trial.  Men  were  spirited  away,  to  return 
only  when  the  Act  expired — men,  presumably,  deeply 
imbued  in  guilt,  but  the  proof  must  have  been  incon- 
clusive as  no  attempt  was  ever  made  by  the  Government 
to  put  them  on  their  trial  on  any  charge  whatever.1 

Two   trials  which   took   place   in   Scotland  in    the 

1  I  have  been  unable  to  find  any  in-  said:    "In   1797   he  made   a   similar 

formation  as  to  the  number  of  persons  motion,  which  was  assented  to  without 

arrested  under    this    Act.      In    1817  any  hesitation,"   but   the  return   was 

(Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxxvi.  p.  never  printed.     Perhaps   it  could   be 

941,    llth  June)   Sir   F.   Burdett,    in  traced  in  the  MS.  records  of  the  House 

moving  for  a  return  of  the  number  of  of  Commons.     The  information  would 

persons    arrested    under    the    Habeas  be  interesting  if  obtainable. 
Corpus  Suspension  Act  in  that  year, 


234         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

course  of  the  autumn  (3d  September  1794)  must  briefly 
be  adverted  to  before  mentioning  those  of  the  members 
of  the  London  Societies.  Two  men,  Robert  Watt  and 
David  Downie,  were  tried  at  Edinburgh  in  September 
1794.  Downie,  it  would  appear,  was  an  honest  re- 
former, but  "  Watt  was  a  spy  in  the  pay  of  the 
Government,  and  a  great  instigator  in  procuring  the 
manufacture  of  pikes." l  He  had  some  of  them  secreted 
in  his  house  ;  when  a  search  was  made  in  it  for  bankrupt 
goods  the  pikes  were  discovered.  He  was  apprehended, 
tried  on  a  charge  of  high  treason,  and  convicted. 
Downie  was  also  convicted,  but  the  latter,  being  recom- 
mended to  mercy  by  the  jury,  was  reprieved.  Watt, 
the  spy,  however,  caught  in  the  net  he  had  prepared 
for  others,  suffered  the  last  penalty  of  the  law  on  15th 
of  October.2 

Whilst  the  details  of  his  hanging  and  subsequent 
decapitation  were  still  the  conversation  of  the  day, 
Thomas  Hardy,  the  Secretary  of  the  London  Correspond- 
ing Society,  was  put  on  trial  in  London  on  the  28th 
October  on  no  less  a  charge  than  high  treason,  the 
success  of  Ministers  in  getting  convictions  in  Scotland 
having  made  them  confident  of  convicting  the  men  they 
had  seized  in  London,  even  on  a  capital  charge.  A 
special  commission  was  appointed  to  try  him  and  his 
fellow-prisoners.3 

The  charge  against  him  was,  that  "  not  having 
the  fear  of  God  in  his  heart,  but  being  moved  and 
seduced  by  the  instigation  of  the  devil,  as  a  false  traitor 
...  he  did  intend  to  stir,  move,  and  excite  insurrec- 
tion, rebellion,  and  war  against  our  lord  the  King,  and 
to  subvert  and  alter  the  Legislature,  rule,  and  Govern- 

1  State  Trials,  vol.  xxiii.  p.  1167 ;       Confession,    State    Trials,    vol.    xxiii. 
and  vol.  xxiv.  p.  1.  p.  1394. 

2  See    his   dying    Declaration    and          3  State  Trials,  vol.  xxiv.  p.  199. 


CHAP.VI     STATE  PROSECUTION  OF  THOMAS  HARDY         235 

ment  now  duly  and  happily  established  ;  and  to  depose 
him,  and  to  bring  and  put  him  to  death,"  etc. ;  and 
that  he  and  his  fellow-prisoners  "amongst  them- 
selves and  together  with  divers  other  false  traitors, 
whose  names  are  unknown,  did  conspire  "  to  do  those 
things  just  mentioned.  All  this  was  attempted  to  be 
proven  by  giving  in  evidence  the  recorded  proceedings 
of  the  Societies,  their  correspondence,  the  speeches  of 
their  members,  the  plan  of  the  proposed  Convention, 
and  then  proving  that  he  was  concerned  therein. 

The  Attorney-General  thus  described  the  conduct  of 
the  men  he  was  now  proceeding  against. 

"  You  will  find  these  men  inflaming  the  ignorant, 
under  pretence  of  enlightening  them  ;  debauching  their 
principles  towards  their  country,  under  pretence  of  in- 
fusing political  knowledge  into  them  ;  addressing  them- 
selves principally  to  those  whose  rights,  whose  interests, 
are  in  the  eye  of  the  law  and  Constitution  of  England 
as  valuable  as  those  of  any  men,  but  whose  education 
does  not  enable  them  immediately  to  distinguish  be- 
tween political  truth  and  the  misrepresentations  held 
out  to  them ;  working  upon  the  passions  of  men  whom 
Providence  hath  placed  in  the  lower  but  useful  and 
highly  respectable  situations  in  life,  to  irritate  them 
against  all  whom  its  bounty  hath  blessed  by  assigning 
to  them  situations  of  rank  and  property,  representing 
them  as  their  oppressors,  as  their  enemies,  as  their 
plunderers,  as  those  whom  they  should  not  suffer  to 
exist."1 

Parliament  had  but  just  declared  by  Act  that  a  trait- 
orous conspiracy  had  been  formed  for  subverting  the 
existing  laws  and  Constitution,  therefore  the  case  against 
Hardy  looked  like  a  foregone  conclusion,  and  the  Scotch 

1  State  Trials,  vol.  xxiv.  p.  272. 


236         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

trials  had  shown  how  easy  it  was  to  utilise  every  speech, 
book,  pamphlet,  or  paper  as  condemnatory  evidence ; 
but,  thanks  to  the  ever  memorable  defence  of  the 
greatest  orator  which  the  Bar  has  ever  had,  the  allega- 
tions in  the  indictment  were  shown  to  be  unsustainable. 
Indiscretions  were  admitted,  but  that  these  indiscretions 
amounted  to  high  treason  was  completely  disproved. 
The  case  was  one  of  the  utmost  importance.  As 
Erskine,  in  his  defence  of  the  prisoner,  said,  "  If  upon 
this  evidence  there  can  stand  a  conviction  for  high 
treason,  it  is  plain  that  no  man  can  be  said  to  have  a 
life  which  is  his  own.  For  how  can  he  possibly  know 
by  what  engines  it  may  be  snared,  or  from  what  un- 
known sources  it  may  be  attacked  and  overpowered  ? " 

Even  Grey,  though  a  prominent  and  most  able 
Member  of  Parliament  and  heir  to  a  peerage,  felt 
alarmed  for  his  own  personal  safety  if  such  a  construc- 
tion of  the  law  of  treason  received  legal  sanction.  We 
find  him  writing  to  his  wife,  denouncing  strongly  "  the 
new  constructions  of  treason  under  which  no  man  was 
safe.  You  see  by  these  new  constructions  of  treason, 
they  have  found  a  much  better  way  of  disposing  of 
obnoxious  persons  than  by  sending  them  to  Botany 
Bay.  ...  If  Hardy  is  hanged,  there  is  no  safety  for 
any  one ;  innocence  no  longer  affords  protection  to 
persons  obnoxious  to  those  in  power,  and  I  do  not 
know  how  soon  it  may  come  my  turn." : 

Freedom  of  public  discussion  in  fact,  as  well  as 
Hardy's  life,  hung  in  the  scales.  Had  the  prosecution 
succeeded,  even  the  slightest  comment  on  the  Govern- 
ment, or  on  any  part  of  the  Constitution,  would  only 
have  been  possible  at  the  risk  of  a  prosecution  for  high 
treason,  and  if  conviction  followed,  ignominious  death. 

1  State  Trials,  vol.  xxiv.  p.  938.  z  See  Grey's  Life  of  Lord  Grey,  p.  28. 


CHAP,  vi  STATE  PROSECUTIONS  237 

Happily  the  prosecution  did  not  succeed.  The  jury  im- 
mortalised itself  by  bringing  in  a  verdict  of  "  Not  guilty," 
— a  verdict  greeted  with  the  wildest,  most  enthusiastic 
acclamation  by  the  multitude  outside  the  Court. 

Having  put  their  hand  to  the  plough  the  Govern- 
ment were  bound  to  go  on  despite  this  reverse ;  and  on 
17th  of  November  the  Reverend  John  Horne-Tooke,  he 
who  had  made  his  name  and  fame  in  Middlesex  as  the 
champion  and  supporter  of  Wilkes,  was  tried  for  high 
treason.  Hardy  had  been  singled  out  as  one  of  the 
principal  men  of  "  The  London  Corresponding  Society." 
Tooke  was  now  selected  as  one  of  the  principal  men  of 
"The  Society  for  Constitutional  Information "- —these 
two  Societies  being,  according  to  Pitt,  the  mainspring 
of  the  whole  business.  But  the  prosecution  against 
him  was  not  more  successful,  and  he  too  was  acquitted. 
It  was  clearly  hopeless  securing  a  conviction  on  the 
charge  of  high  treason,  and  on  1st  December  the 
Attorney-General  proposed  that  several  other  of  the 
prisoners  should  be  acquitted.  One  more  attempt, 
however,  was  made,  and  Thelwall  was  indicted,  but 
after  four  days'  trial  he  too  was  acquitted,  and  then 
the  Attorney-General,  finally  defeated,  asked  for  the 
acquittal  of  the  remaining  prisoners. 

The  real  purport  and  meaning  of  these  acquittals  is 
best  gathered  from  the  debates  which  took  place  when 
Parliament  met.  Early  in  January  1795  Sheridan 
moved  the  repeal  of  the  Habeas  Corpus  Suspension  Act.1 

"  He  did  not  hesitate  to  say  the  evidence  at  the 
trials  did  not  exhibit  instances  of  many  gross  and  scan- 
dalous libels.  He  was  ready  to  admit  that  there  were 
in  the  Societies  mischievous  men  intent  on  mischievous 
purposes.  There  were  others  actuated  by  enthusiasm 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxxi.  p.  1065. 


238         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

"and  the  adoption  of  French  phrases  was  contemptibly 
foolish ; "  but  "  the  verdicts  of  repeated  juries  had 
negatived  the  existence  of  any  plot."  He  compared 
the  proposed  Convention  of  1794  with  the  actual  one 
of  1780,  and  the  Parliamentary  reformers  of  those  two 
periods,  wittily  remarking  :  "  We  make  a  boast  of  equal 
laws.  If  these  men  are  to  be  considered  as  guilty  of 
high  treason,  let  us  have  some  retrospective  hanging, 
and  whatever  in  that  case  may  happen  to  me,  his 
Majesty  will  at  least  derive  some  benefit,  since  he  will 
thereby  get  rid  of  a  majority  of  his  present  Cabinet." 

Erskine,  more  seriously,  thus  summed  up  the  effect 
of  the  trials  and  acquittals  :  "  The  questions  of  fact 
submitted  to  the  jury  were  whether  the  defendants  com- 
passed and  imagined  the  King's  death  ?  and  whether, 
in  pursuance  of  that  traitorous  purpose,  they  conspired 
to  hold  a  Convention,  which  should  assume  the  func- 
tions of  Parliament?  and  whether  they  conspired  to 
provide  arms  for  that  traitorous  purpose  ?  and  whether 
they  published  various  papers  with  the  traitorous  pur- 
pose, either  to  hold  a  Convention  for  the  traitorous  pur- 
poses charged,  or  to  levy  war  and  rebellion  generally 
against  the  King  ?  .  .  .  The  juries,  by  their  verdicts, 
had  not  merely  by  probable  inference,  but  almost 
directly  and  technically,  negatived  the  existence  of  the 
conspiracy  upon  which  the  suspension  of  the  Habeas 
Corpus  Act  was  founded.1  .  .  . 

"  It  was  clear  to  demonstration  that  the  jury  could 
not  have  acquitted  Hardy  upon  any  other  principle  on 
earth,  consistently  with  common  honesty  and  common 
sense,  than  upon  the  utter  disbelief  of  the  existence  of 
the  conspiracy  as  charged. 

"  The  gross  falsehood  and  absurdity  of  the  supposed 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxxi.  p.  1090. 


CHAP,  vi          TRIAL  FOR  SEDITIOUS  CONSPIRACY  239 

conspiracy  was  the  sheet-anchor  on  which  we  relied,  and 
on  which  we  prevailed." 

Sheridan's  motion  for  the  repeal  of  the  Suspension  of 
the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  was  rejected ;  and  shortly  after- 
wards a  Bill  continuing  its  suspension  was  introduced. 
The  second  reading  was  carried  by  239  to  53,  so  small 
was  the  popular  party  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
the  Bill  soon  became  law.  By  it  the  Habeas  Corpus 
Act  was  further  suspended  until  the  1st  July  in  that 
year  (1795). 

The  Government  had  been  distinctly  worsted  in 
their  prosecutions  in  England,  and  their  grand  attack 
on  the  use  of  the  Platform  had  resulted  in  a  disgrace- 
covering  fiasco  ;  but  it  was  not  long  before  they  set 
abcut  rectifying  the  error  they  had  perpetrated.  The 
mistake  which  they  made  was  magnifying  the  charge 
against  the  men  into  "  high  treason."  Perhaps  on  a 
less  heinous  charge  a  conviction  would  be  possible. 
Accordingly  Henry  Yorke,  whose  speech  has  already 
been  quoted,  and  who  was  in  custody  on  a  charge  of 
high  treason,  was  made  the  subject  of  experiment.  The 
Government  pitched  their  tone  in  a  lower  key,  aban- 
doned the  charge  against  him  of  high  treason,  tried  him 
for  seditious  conspiracy,  and  were  successful.  The  in- 
dictment against  him,  and  against  Gales,  a  printer,  and 
Davison,  a  labourer,  who  printed  the  speech,  was  that 
"being  malicious,  seditious,  and  ill-disposed  persons, 
they  did  unlawfully  and  seditiously  combine,  conspire, 
etc.,  to  traduce,  vilify,  and  defame  the  Commons  House 
of  Parliament,  and  the  Government  of  the  realm,  and 
to  excite  a  spirit  of  discontent,  disaffection,  and  sedition 
in  the  minds  of  the  liege  subjects  of  our  said  lord  the 
King,"1  etc. ;  and  that  on  the  7th  April  1794,  at  Shef- 

1  State  Trials,  vol.  xxv.  p.  1003. 


240         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

field,  they  did  cause  and  procure  some  4000  persons  to 
meet  and  assemble  together  at  a  certain  open  place 
called  the  Castle  Hill  at  Sheffield,  at  which  were  uttered 
and  published  "  divers  scandalous,  seditious,  inflam- 
matory speeches."  Sir  Fitz- James  Stephen,  comment- 
ing on  this  case  in  his  work  on  Criminal  Law,1  remarks 
that  this  was  the  first  instance  of  a  prosecution  with 
which  he  was  acquainted  in  which  the  law  of  conspiracy 
to  political,  and  especially  to  seditious  offences,  was 
applied. 

"  It  was  said  at  the  time  (of  the  trial  of  Hardy  and 
the  others)  that  if  the  prosecution  had  been  for  a  seditious 
conspiracy  it  must  have  succeeded,  and  after  the  failure 
of  the  prosecutions  for  treason,  Yorke  was  accordingly 
prosecuted  for  a  seditious  conspiracy  on  facts  closely 
resembling,  and  closely  connected  with,  those  which 
had  been  made  the  subject  of  the  prosecutions  for 
treason. 

"  The  indictment1  charged  in  substance  a  conspiracy 
to  traduce  and  vilify  the  House  of  Commons  and  the 
Government,  and  to  excite  disaffection  and  sedition,  as 
overt  acts  of  which  conspiracy  it  was  alleged  that  meet- 
ings were  held  at  different  places  for  the  purpose  of 
hearing  seditious  and  inflammatory  speeches." 

On  this  more  moderate  charge  Yorke  was  convicted 
and  sentenced  to  a  fine  of  £200,  to  two  years'  imprison- 
ment, and  to  find  security  for  good  behaviour  for  seven 
years. 

The  sentence  of  course  was  not  quite  so  deterrent 
as  would  have  been  one  for  high  treason,  but  the  Govern- 
ment must  have  been  well  content  to  find  that  Platform 
speeches  could  be  effectually  dealt  with. 

1  Vol.  ii.  p.  378. 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE    FIKST    SUPPRESSION    OF    THE    PLATFORM 

AFTER  the  failure  of  the  prosecutions  of  their  principal 
men,  the  Societies  took  fresh  courage,  and  entered  upon 
a  more  vigorous  campaign ;  but  as  the  suspension  of 
the  Habeas  Corpus  remained  in  operation  till  the  1st 
of  July,  they  had  at  first  to  be  cautious.  The  public 
meetings  which  had  been  held  at  Hackney  Fields  in 
1793,  and  Chalk  Farm  in  1794,  had  been  so  successful 
in  their  results,  and  the  Platform  had  been  so  stimulat- 
ing in  its  effect,  that,  as  the  summer  drew  on,  and  the 
expiration  of  the  Habeas  Corpus  Suspension  Act  drew 
nigh,  the  London  Corresponding  Society  determined  on 
convening  another  open-air  meeting  "  for  the  purpose 
of  considering  the  best  means  of  obtaining  Universal 
Suffrage  and  Annual  Parliaments." 

The  Society  had  gained  so  much  in  numbers  and 
notoriety  that  the  Platform  now  afforded  it  the  most 
efficient  assistance  in  continuing  and  extending  its 
operations,  and,  accordingly,  recourse  to  the  Platform 
was  becoming  more  and  more  frequent. 

The  meeting  was  held  on  Monday,  29th  of  June 
1795,  in  an  enclosed  field  near  the  obelisk,  in  St. 
George's  Fields,  Borough  Road.  The  proceedings  were 
very  fully  reported,  and  present  an  interesting  picture 


242         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

of  one  of  the  meetings  of  these  London  reformers. 
About  3  P.M.  "  Citizen  "  John  Gale  Jones,  a  "  vehement 
declaimer,"  took  the  chair,  and  proceeded  to  address  the 
meeting,  which  was  a  very  large  one.1  "  Citizens,"  said 
the  Chairman,  "it  is  with  infinite  satisfaction  that  I 
behold  here  assembled  so  very  numerous  and  respectable 
a  meeting ;  it  presents,  indeed,  to  my  view  a  spectacle  at 
once  sublime  and  awful,  since  it  seems  as  if  the  whole 
British  nation  had  convened  itself  upon  this  extraor- 
dinary occasion  to  witness  the  propriety  of  our  conduct, 
and  testify  for  the  legality  of  our  proceedings.  They 
will  not,  I  believe,  be  disappointed.  We  meet  for 
no  other  than  our  original  purpose — a  Parliamentary 
Reform  —  and  disclaim  all  intention  of  tumult  or 
violence. 

"  I  hope,  by  our  firm,  yet  moderate  conduct,  we 
shall  gain  the  goodwill  and  concurrence  of  all  who 
are  here  present,  and  convince  them  that  we  are,  as 
we  ever  have  been,  the  sincere  advocates  and  steady 
promoters  of  universal  peace  and  tranquillity. 

"  The  immediate  objects  to  which  I  would  call  your 
attention  are, — an  Address  to  the  Nation,  another  to 
the  King,  and  a  few  Resolutions  expressive  of  the  pre- 
sent situation  of  the  country,  and  our  determination  to 
pursue,  by  every  legal  and  constitutional  method,  the 
best  means  of  obtaining  our  natural  rights,  Universal 
Suffrage,  and  Annual  Parliaments." 

An  "Address  to  the  Nation"  was  adopted. 

A  few  extracts  from  it  will  convey  sufficient  idea  of 
its  general  style. 

"  After  the  lapse  of  more  than  a  twelvemonth, 
replete  with  fearful  agitation  and  alarm,  the  London 
Corresponding  Society,  still  firm  in  its  principles  and 

1  See  History  of  Two  Ads,  p.  91. 


CHAP,  vir  ST.  GEORGE'S  FIELDS  MEETING  243 

faithful  to  its  original  purpose,  again  offers  itself  to  your 
notice."  .  .  . 

"It  is  now  nearly  four  years  since  we  first  called 
your  attention  to  the  circumstances  of  the  times,  and  to 
the  situation  of  your  country ;  if  it  were  necessary  then 
to   associate,   how  much   more   is   that   necessity  now 
increased !     We  felt  it  our  duty  to  unite  and  proclaim 
our  grievances ;    those  grievances  are  augmented  ten- 
fold ;   and  is  this  a  time  to  be  silent  or  abandon  our 
cause  ?  .  .  .  And  is  it  a  time  to  relinquish  all  further 
exertions  and  desert  our  principles  ?     Surely  not !     The 
public  mind  is  at  length  roused  to  a  sense  of  its  situa- 
tion ;  it  sees  the  dreadful  precipice  on  which  it  stands ; 
it  encourages  us  to  proceed  in  our  useful  and  virtuous 
career,  and  assures  us  it  will  second  our  endeavours. 
Yes,    Britons !    you   begin   to    exert    the    privilege   of 
thinking,  and  mental  energy  will  soon  be  succeeded  by 
determined  resolution.     You  will  not  quietly  see  your 
country  laid  in  ruins,  to  gratify  the  lofty  arrogance  of 
an  insolent  Administration.     You  will  not  much  longer 
permit  your  fellow -citizens  to  be  dragged  from  their 
peaceful  occupations   to   fight  against   the  liberties  of 
mankind.  .  .  .  Away  with  cold  calculations  of  safety 
or  prudence,  with  paltry  expedients  and  ill-timed  fears. 
It  is  necessary  for  all    honest  men  to  speak  out — the 
times  and  the  country  demand  it.     Are  we  men,  and 
shall  we  not  speak  ?     Are  we  Britons,  and  is  not  liberty 
our  birthright  ?    There  is  no  power  on  earth  shall  silence 
the  voice  of  an  injured  nation,  or  prevent  the  progress 
of  free  inquiry !     Bring  forth  your  whips  and  racks, 
ye  ministers  of  vengeance.     Produce  your  scaffolds  and 
your  executioners  !     Erect  barracks  in  every  street  and 
bastiles  in  every  corner !     Persecute  and  punish  every 
innocent  individual ;  but  you  will   not   succeed.     The 


244         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

"  voice  of  reason,  like  the  roaring  of  the  Nemean  lion, 
shall  issue  even  from  the  cavern's  mouth !  The  holy 
blood  of  Patriotism,  streaming  from  the  severing  axe, 
shall  carry  with  it  the  infant  seeds  of  Liberty,  and  men 
may  perish,  but  Truth  shall  be  eternal." 

"  Let  us  entreat  you  not  to  fall  into  those  fatal 
errors  which  have  so  frequently  misled  our  ancestors, 
nor  rest  your  expectations  on  that  delusive  phantom — a 
change  of  Ministers.  With  such  a  House  of  Commons, 
no  Ministry  can  perform  its  duty  to  the  people  !  Your 
CHIEF,  perhaps  your  ONLY  hope,  is  in  YOURSELVES.  .  .  . 
We  conjure  you  by  that  Freedom  we  adore,  that  Con- 
stitution we  venerate,  and  that  common  interest  we  all 
possess  in  the  prosperity  of  our  country,  to  unite  your 
vigorous  exertions  with  ours,  and  by  every  legal  and 
constitutional  method  endeavour  to  procure  to  the  people 
of  Great  Britain  their  natural  and  undoubted  Rights — 
UNIVERSAL  SUFFRAGE  and  ANNUAL  PARLIAMENTS." 

This  Address,  having  been  twice  read  to  the  mem- 
bers within  the  field,  was  carried  to  the  wall  opposite 
the  President,  which  afforded  the  greatest  opportunity 
of  communicating  the  proceedings  to  the  immense 
multitude  which  surrounded  the  meeting. 

An  "  Address  to  the  King "  was  also  adopted, 
asking  in  not  very  moderate  terms  for  the  reform  of 
Parliament,  the  dismissal  of  Ministers,  and  for  a 
termination  of  the  war. 

"It  is  necessary,  Sire,  that  you  should  be  un- 
deceived ;  and  if  you  have  not  an  honest  Minister,  that 
will  dare  to  speak  the  truth,  the  people  should  instruct 
their  Sovereign,  and  save  him  from  destruction.  We 
conjure  you,  Sire,  in  the  name,  and  for  the  sake  of  that 
glorious  Revolution,  which  seated  the  House  of  Bruns- 


CHAP,  vii  ST.  GEORGE'S  FIELDS  MEETING  245 

wick  on  the  Throne,  to  yield  a  timely  attention  to  the 
cries  of  a  suffering  people,  and  to  exert  that  power  with 
which  the  Constitution  has  intrusted  you  ;  to  give  them 
that  free  and  equal  representation  which  can  alone 
enable  the  British  Nation  to  prevent  future  and  remove 
the  present  calamities ;  to  dismiss  from  your  councils 
those  guilty  Ministers  who  have  so  long  with  impunity 
insulted  us,  and  betrayed  our  dearest  interests ;  to  put 
an  immediate  period  to  the  ravages  of  a  cruel  and 
destructive  war,  and  to  restore  to  us  that  peace  and 
tranquillity  which  are  so  essentially  necessary  for  your 

OWN  PERSONAL  SECURITY  AND  FOR  THE  HAPPINESS  OF 
THE  PEOPLE." 

After  considerable  discussion  as  to  the  terms  of  the 
Address  to  the  King,  and  the  adoption  of  some  resolu- 
tions, Citizen  Gale  Jones  again  spoke  and  said :  "I 
hope  the  event  of  this  truly  great  and  glorious  day  will 
fully  prove  to  the  world  that  a  large  body  of  the  people 
can,  even  in  the  most  critical  and  perilous  times, 
assemble  to  deliberate  upon  public  measures,  without 
the  smallest  violation  of  order  or  the  slightest  breach  of 
decorum." 

The  meeting,  which  had  been  peaceable  and  orderly 
throughout,  then  quietly  dispersed. 

What  a  strange  and  startling  event  must  this  great 
meeting  have  beer  to  the  ruling  classes  of  that  time- 
something   to  ponder  over   and   consider — its   danger 
looking  more  formidable  under  the  lurid  lights  of  the 
French  Revolution  still  quivering  in  the  sky  ! 

As  the  summer  and  autumn  went  on,  signs  of 
increasing  unrest  showed  themselves,  and  Ministers 
determined  on  an  early  meeting  of  Parliament. 

Place,  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  much  valuable 
information,  explains  much  that  otherwise  would  be 


246         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

difficult  quite  to  realise.  Writing  of  this  precise  time, 
he  says :  "  The  whole  country  was  in  a  ferment  from 
the  idea  which  was  universally  prevalent,  that  the 
Ministry  would  listen  to  no  terms  of  peace  with  France, 
without  which  there  was  but  little  reason  to  hope  for 
the  return  of  plenty,  and  this  was  understood  to  be  the 
cause  of  the  Parliament  being  called  together  earlier 
than  usual. 

"  The  state  of  irritation  which  the  circumstances  of 
the  time  produced  drove  the  people  into  clubs  and  as- 
sociations to  obtain  peace,  reform,  and  cheap  bread. 
Those  who  associated  were  fully  persuaded  that  by 
causing  as  great  a  ferment  as  possible  the  Government 
would  be  overawed,  and  concede  what  they  requested. 
Mr.  Grey  had  said  in  his  place  in  Parliament,  the 
House  will  never  reform  itself  or  destroy  the  corruption 
by  which  it  is  upheld  by  any  other  means  than  those 
of  the  resolutions  of  the  people  acting  on  the  prudence 
of  the  House.  That  point  they  could  only  accomplish 
by  meeting  in  bodies  as  recommended  by  the  Ministers 
in  1782. 

"  This  was  firmly  and  reasonably  believed  by  vast 
numbers  of  the  people,  who  were,  however,  mistaken  in 
supposing  the  time  was  come  when  the  people  could  act 
on  the  prudence  of  the  House  so  as  to  obtain  a  reform."1 

"  In  this  state  of  irritated  feelings,"  continues  Place, 
"  The  London  Corresponding  Society  called  a  public 
meeting  of  the  people  in  a  field  near  Copenhagen  House, 
near  Islington,  on  26th  October  1795.  " 

"This,"  he  characterises  as  "an  injudicious  proceed- 
ing." Many  persons  shared  his  views,  and  were 
against  holding  a  meeting,  but  he  says :  "  Almost 
everybody  with  whom  I  talked  were  persuaded  that 

1  Place,  MSS.,  27,808,  p.  36. 


CHAP,  vii  COPENHAGEN  FIELDS  MEETING  247 

the  House  of  Commons  would  be  induced  to  consent  to 
a  radical  reform  in  the  state  of  the  representation,  and 
on  this  notion  the  Society  proceeded." 

In  The  History  of  Two  Acts  an  account  of  this 
meeting  is  given.  "  The  indifference  with  which  the 
late  Address  from  this  Society  to  the  King  was  treated  ; 
the  rapid  approximation  of  national  destruction ;  the 
continuation  of  the  present  detestable  war ;  the  horrors 
of  an  approaching  famine ;  and,  above  all,  the  increased 
corruption,  and  inquisitorial  measures  pursued  and 
pursuing  by  those  who  hold  the  country  in  bondage, 
obliged  this  Society  to  appeal  once  more  to  their  fellow- 
countrymen,  and  their  common  friends  the  advocates  of 
reform,  in  order  to  obtain,  by  an  open  and  explicit  dis- 
cussion of  those  several  topics,  a  precise  and  unequivocal 
declaration  of  the  public  opinion,  upon  objects  so  essen- 
tial to  the  present  good  and  future  glory  of  this 
country." 

This  time  "  Citizen  "  John  Binns  was  chairman. 

"  The  number  of  people  at  the  meeting  was  very  great 
(150,000  it  was  said,  but  that  of  course  was  an  exaggera- 
tion). There  were  three  Platforms,  called  tribunes, 
erected  at  what  was  supposed  a  convenient  distance ; 
each  of  these  was  surrounded  by  a  vast  number  of 
persons ;  so  great  indeed  was  the  number,  that  not  half 
of  the  spectators  could  get  near  enough  to  hear  a  single 
word  of  what  was  said  by  the  speakers  on  either  side 
of  the  tribunes."  "  Precautions  were  taken  to  frustrate 
the  efforts  of  persons  hired  to  promote  disorder  at  the 
meeting,  for  which  purpose  several  thousand  handbills 
were  circulated  in  the  numerous  avenues  leading  to  the 
place  of  meeting,  and  on  the  ground,  recommending 
orderly  and  peaceable  behaviour." 

Another  Address  to  the  Nation  was  adopted,  "  the 


248         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

"  reading  of  which  was  from  time  to  time  interrupted 
with  such  loud  applauses  as  are  but  seldom  heard,  even 
in  public  places." 

"  What  is  the  cruel  and  insatiate  monster  that  thus 
piecemeal  tears  and  devours  us  ?  Wherefore,  in  the 
midst  of  apparent  plenty,  are  we  thus  compelled  to 
starve  ?  Why,  when  we  incessantly  toil  and  labour 
must  we  pine  in  misery  and  want  ?  What  is  this  subtle 
and  insinuating  poison  which  thus  vitiates  our  domestic 
comforts,  and  destroys  our  public  prosperity  ?  It  is  Par- 
liamentary Corruption  which,  like  a  foaming  whirlpool, 
swallows  the  fruit  of  all  our  labours,  and  leaves  us  only 
the  dregs  of  bitterness  and  sorrow. 

"  Those  whose  duty  it  is  to  watch  over  the  interests 
of  the  nation,  have  either  proved  themselves  indifferent 
to  its  welfare,  or  unable  to  remove  the  pressure  of  these 
intolerable  grievances.  Let  them,  however,  be  aware  in 
time.  Let  them  look  to  the  fatal  consequences.  We  are 
sincere  friends  of  Peace.  We  want  only  Reform,  because 
we  are  firmly  and  fully  convinced  that  a  thorough  Reform 
would  effectually  remedy  these  formidable  evils;  but 
we  cannot  answer  for  the  strong  and  all-powerful  impulse 
of  necessity,  nor  always  restrain  the  aggravated  feelings 
of  insulted  human  nature.  IF  EVER  THE  BRITISH  NATION 

SHOULD  LOUDLY  DEMAND  STRONG  AND  DECISIVE  MEASURES, 
WE  BOLDLY  ANSWER,  "  WE  HAVE  LIVES  !  AND  ARE  READY 
TO  DEVOTE  THEM,  EITHER  SEPARATELY  OR  COLLECTIVELY, 
FOR  THE  SALVATION  OF  OUR  COUNTRY." 

This  time  a  "  Remonstrance "  to  the  King  was 
adopted,  as  their  previous  Address  had  not  been  attended 
to,  again  urging  peace  and  Parliamentary  reform,  annual 
Parliaments,  and  universal  suffrage.  "  Listen  then,  Sire, 
to  the  voice  of  a  wearied  and  afflicted  people,  whose 
grievances  are  so  various  that  they  distract,  so  enormous 


CHAP,  vii  OUTRAGE  ON  THE  KING  249 

that  they  terrify.  Think  of  the  abyss  between  supplica- 
tion and  despair." 

Several  resolutions  were  also  passed,  one  "  That  in 
order  the  more  effectually  to  obtain  the  co-operation  and 
assistance  of  the  whole  country,  deputies  shall  be  sent 
from  the  Society  to  the  principal  towns  in  the  kingdom, 
for  the  purpose  of  explaining  to  our  fellow-countrymen 
the  necessity  of  associating,  as  the  only  means  of  pro- 
curing Parliamentary  reform."  Another,  "  That  the 
only  hope  of  the  people  is  in  themselves."  Numerous 
speeches  were  made,  and  a  little  after  five  o'clock  the 
meeting  broke  up,  "  when  the  immense  company  that 
was  present  separated  and  proceeded  to  their  respective 
homes.  The  utmost  harmony,  regularity,  and  good 
order  prevailed  during  the  whole  time,  each  and  every 
individual  seeming  to  be  impressed  with  the  idea  that 
it  was  a  day  sacred  to  liberty" 

It  has  been  necessary  to  give  at  some  length  the 
description  of  these  meetings,  as  they  constitute  the 
first  Platform  campaign  by  the  civic  industrial  popula- 
tion of  this  country.  The  details  are  instructive,  as 
showing  both  the  spirit  and  the  style  of  these  earlier 
efforts  at  agitation  by  the  Platform,  and  they  enable  us 
practically,  I  think,  for  the  first  time,  to  understand 
what  it  really  was  the  Government  had  to  deal  with. 

Three  days  after  this  meeting,  Parliament  was 
opened,  and  there  was  an  enormous  crowd  to  see  the 
King  going  there  in  state  to  deliver  the  Royal  Speech. 
He  was  violently  hissed  and  hooted  and  groaned  at; 
cries  of  "No  war,"  "No  Pitt,"  "No  famine,"  "Peace, 
peace ! "  proceeded  from  some  in  the  crowd ;  but  no 
violence  of  any  sort  was  offered  until  he  arrived  oppo- 
site the  Ordnance  Office,  when  a  small  pebble,  or  marble, 
or  bullet,  broke  one  of  the  windows  of  his  carriage. 


250         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

Later  in  the  day  lie  was  again  mobbed,  but  the  Guards 
were  speedily  brought  up,  and  he  was  enabled  to 
proceed. 

The  occurrence  sent  a  thrill  of  excitement  through 
the  country.  The  Ministers  immediately  threw  the 
whole  blame  upon  the  Platform,  and  asserted  that  this 
attack  on  the  King  was  the  direct  result  of  the  meeting 
near  Copenhagen  House.  A  Proclamation  was  forth- 
with issued1  against  seditious  and  unlawful  assemblies. 
"  Whereas  it  hath  been  represented  to  us  that  immedi- 
ately before  the  opening  of  the  present  Session  of  Par- 
liament, a  great  number  of  persons  were  collected  in  the 
fields  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  metropolis  by  adver- 
tisement and  handbills,  and  that  divers  inflammatory 
discourses  were  delivered  to  the  persons  so  collected ; 
.  .  .  and  whereas  such  proceedings  have  been  followed 
by  acts  of  tumult  and  violence,  and  by  daring  and 
highly  criminal  outrages  in  direct  violation  of  the 
public  peace,  to  the  immediate  danger  of  our  Royal 
Person,  and  to  the  interruption  of  our  passage  to  and 
from  our  Parliament.  And  whereas  great  uneasiness 
and  anxiety  hath  been  produced  in  the  minds  of  our 
faithful  subjects  by  rumours  and  apprehensions  that 
seditious  and  unlawful  assemblies  are  intended  to  be 
held  by  evil- disposed  persons,  and  that  such  other 
criminal  practices  as  aforesaid  are  intended  to  be 
repeated. 

"We  do  hereby  enjoin  and  require  all  Justices  of 
the  Peace,  Constables,  etc.  etc.,  to  use  the  utmost 
diligence  to  discourage,  prevent,  and  suppress  all 
seditious  and  unlawful  assemblies." 

Proclamations,  however,  cannot  alter  or  make  laws, 
and  as  the  existing  laws  were  deemed  insufficient  to 

1  4th  November  1795,  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxxiL  p.  243. 


CHAP,  vii  REPRESSIVE  LEGISLATION  251 

check  such  proceedings,  fresh  legislation  was  an  urgent 
necessity.  Two  Bills  were  therefore  forthwith  intro- 
duced into  Parliament — one  for  the  safety  and  pre- 
servation of  his  Majesty's  person  and  Government 
against  treasonable  and  seditious  practices  and  attempts ; 
the  other  for  crushing  the  Platform  and  silencing  free 
speech,  or,  as  the  Bill  described  itself,  "for  the  more 
effectually  preventing  seditious  meetings  and  assem- 
blies." 

The  former  was  introduced  into  the  House  of  Lords 
by  Lord  Grenville  (Secretary  of  State),  who  said  that 
"  the  late  violent  attack  upon  the  person  of  his  Majesty 
demanded  some  necessary  measures  for  the  prevention 
of  a  return  of  similar  abuses,  and  that  attack  he  sus- 
pected to  have  been  made  in  consequence  of  the  licen- 
tious proceedings  which  had  of  late  been  suffered 
without  any  notice  or  restriction.  Indeed,  the  treason- 
able and  seditious  speeches  and  writings,  which  had  of 
late  been  so  assiduously  disseminated  at  public  meetings, 
together  with  the  number  of  libels  otherwise  circulated, 
were  so  general  and  notorious,  as  most  particularly  to 
call  for  the  interference  of  Parliament.1 

"  The  dangerous  doctrines  held  forth  at  such  meet- 
ings tended  to  inflame  the  minds  of  the  infatuated 
multitude.  ...  If  they  were  suffered  to  continue 
scattering  firebrands  where  there  was  much  combustible 
matter,  their  lordships  and  his  Majesty's  Ministers 
would  have  to  answer  to  themselves  and  to  their 
country  for  the  effect  that  might  follow."2 

The  measure  he  introduced  need  not  have  been 
noticed  here  were  it  not  that  part  of  it  lent  itself, 
in  the  hands  of  the  Government,  to  a  serious  inter- 
ference with  freedom  of  speech  and  public  discus- 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxxii.  p.  245.  2  Ibid.  p.  262. 


252         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     FART  i 

sion — the  part  which  enacted  that  persons  who  should 
"  maliciously  and  advisedly  by  writing,  printing,  preach- 
ing, or  other  speaking,  express,  publish,  utter,  or  declare, 
any  words  or  sentences  to  incite  or  stir  up  the  people 
to  hatred  or  contempt  of  the  person  of  his  Majesty, 
or  the  government  and  constitution  of  this  realm, 
as  by  law  established," l  should,  on  conviction,  be 
liable  to  such  punishment  as  might  be  inflicted  in 
cases  of  high  misdemeanour,  and  for  a  second  offence 
should  be  liable  to  banishment  or  transportation  for 
seven  years. 

The  Bill  "  for  the  more  effectually  preventing 
seditious  meetings  and  assemblies"  was  introduced 
into  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  10th  of  November 
by  Pitt.  From  the  moment  the  suspension  of  the 
Habeas  Corpus  Act  was  taken  off,  he  said,  "  All  the 
plans  of  the  Societies  revived  and  continued  in  a  pro- 
gressive state  till  the  meeting  of  Parliament." : 

He  contended  th'at  "  they  should  adopt  some  means 
to  prevent  these  seditious  assemblies,  which  served  as 
vehicles  to  faction  and  disloyalty,  which  fanned  and 
kept  alive  the  flame  of  disaffection,  and  filled  the  minds 
of  the  people  with  discontent.  .  .  .  His  motion  was 
directed  to  prevent  those  meetings,  to  which  all  the 
mischiefs  he  had  mentioned  were  attributable. 

"The  meetings  to  which  he  alluded  were  of  two 
descriptions — first,  those  meetings  which,  under  a  pre- 
text (to  which  they  by  no  means  adhered)  of  petitioning 
Parliament  for  rights,  of  which  they  affected  to  be 
deprived,  agitated  questions,  and  promulgated  opinions 
and  insinuations  hostile  to  the  existing  Government, 
and  tending  to  bring  it  into  disrepute  with  the  people  ; 

1  See  36  Geo.  III.  cap.  7,  sec.  2.  2  Parliamentary  History,  1795,  vol. 

xxxii.  p.  273. 


CHAP,  vii  SEDITIOUS  MEETINGS  BILL  253 

second,  those  which,  though  less  numerous,  not  less 
public,  nor  less  dangerous,  were  concerted  evidently  for 
the  purpose  of  disseminating  unjust  grounds  of  jealousy, 
discontent,  and  false  complaints,  against  the  Constitu- 
tion ;  of  irritating  the  minds  of  the  people  against  their 
lawful  governors,  and  encouraging  them  to  acts  of  even 
treason  itself.  In  these  meetings  everything  that  could 
create  faction,  everything  that  could  excite  disloyalty, 
everything  that  could  prepare  the  mind  of  those  who 
attended  for  rebellion,  was  industriously  circulated. 
Both  these  required  some  strong  law  to  prevent  them ; 
for  if  the  arm  of  the  executive  government  was  not 
strengthened  by  such  a  law,  they  would  be  continued, 
if  not  to  the  utter  ruin,  certainly  to  the  indelible 
disgrace  of  the  country." 

And  then  he  continued  in  that  peculiarly  hypocri- 
tical style  of  speech  which  was  so  current  among 
Ministers  in  those  times — that  of  declaring  that  nothing 
would  induce  them  to  do  a  certain  thing  which  they  forth- 
with promptly  proceeded  to  do.  "As  to  the  first  of 
those  descriptions  of  meetings,"  he  said,  "  no  one  would 
venture  to  deny  the  right  of  the  people  to  express  their 
opinions  on  political  men  and  measures,  and  to  discuss 
and  assert  their  right  of  petitioning  all  the  branches  of 
the  Legislature ;  nor  was  there  any  one  who  would  be 
further  from  encroaching  on  that  right  than  himself. 
It  was  undoubtedly  a  most  valuable  privilege,  of  which 
nothing  should  deprive  them.  But  if  meetings  of  this 
kind  wrere  made  the  mere  cover  or  the  pretext  for  acts 
which  were  as  inconsistent  with  the  liberty  of  the  sub- 
ject as  it  was  possible  to  imagine  anything  to  be  ;  if, 
instead  of  stating  grievances,  the  people  were  excited  to 
rebellion  ;  if,  instead  of  favouring  the  principles  of  free- 
dom, the  very  foundation  of  it  was  to  be  destroyed,  and 


254         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

"  with  it  the  happiness  of  the  people,  it  was  high  time 
for  the  Legislature  to  interpose  with  its  authority.1 

"Under  the  other  description  of  meetings — meet- 
ings through  which  the  minds  of  the  people  were 
poisoned  —  fell  those  of  public  lecturers,  who  made 
the  dissemination  of  sedition  the  source  of  liveli- 
hood." 

Ministers  evidently  thought  it  desirable  to  legislate 
comprehensively  once  they  had  an  excuse,  and  to 
sweep  away  all  the  means  whereby  the  lower  orders, 
who  gradually  were  increasing  in  numbers  and  rising 
into  notice,  could  be  instructed  or  influenced.  It  was 
not  the  first  time  these  political  lecturers  or  public 
debating  societies  had  had  attention  called  to  them. 
Some  three  years  previously  the  Lord  Mayor  of  London 
had  called  the  attention  of  Parliament  to  one  in  Corn- 
hill,  which  held  weekly  meetings,  at  which  some  600  to 
700  people  usually  were  present ;  but  he  was  promptly 
covered  with  ridicule  by  Sheridan  for  thus  noticing  "  a 
debating  society,  where  principles  of  the  most  dangerous 
tendency  were  promulgated,  where  people  went  to  buy 
treason  at  sixpence  a  head,  where  it  was  retailed  to 
them  by  the  glimmering  of  an  inch  of  candle,  and  five 
minutes,  measured  by  the  glass,  were  allowed  to  each 
traitor  to  perform  his  part  in  overturning  the  State." : 

The  supply  of  such  institutions  came  from  the 
demand,  and  unless  the  people  wished  and  wanted  to 
have  political  instruction,  lecturers  and  debating  societies 
would  not  have  been  patronised  by  them. 

The  best  known  of  these  lecture  and  debating  rooms 
was  that  kept  by  Thelwall,  who  had  been  tried  for  high 
treason  and  acquitted.  Place  gives  an  account  of  it,  and 

1  Parliamentary  History,  1795,  vol.  a  Ibid.   vol.  xxx.  p.  530,  December 

xxxii.  p.  274.  1792. 


CHAP,  vii  SEDITIOUS  MEETINGS  BILL  255 

of  Thelwall.  He  says  :  "  John  Thelwall  had  in  February 
1795  reopened  his  lecture  room,  fitted  up  with  benches 
so  placed  as  to  contain  a  great  number  of  persons ;  the 
lectures  were  delivered  in  course  twice  a  week ;  the 
price  of  admission  was  sixpence.  The  room  was  con- 
stantly crowded  to  excess.  The  lectures  contained 
much  loose  declamation,  they  also  contained  many 
curious  facts  and  statements,  but  nothing  that  could  be 
called  seditious  or  libellous.  Thelwall  entertained  all 
the  vulgar  prejudices  of  the  day,  and  inculcated  the 
opinions  before  mentioned,  namely,  that  all  the  evils 
and  sufferings  were  due  to  the  bad  policy  of  the  Govern- 
ment." l 

These  lectures  were  afterwards  published  by  Thel- 
wall,2 and  in  the  preface  to  the  volume  he  states  they 
were  delivered  to  an  audience  averaging  430  persons  in 
1794,  and  520  persons  in  1795.  With  the  shadow  of 
the  Act  over  him  which  would  suppress  his  lecture 
room,  he  wrote  :  "  When  perseverance  and  honesty  are 
opposed  to  powerful  corruption,  and  when  men  of  any 
intelligence  are  embarked  in  the  public  cause,  so  long  as 
they  are  permitted  to  speak  at  all,  they  will  find  some 
means,  even  under  the  most  severe,  ambiguous,  and 
iniquitous  laws,  to  publish  such  truths,  and  propagate 
such  sentiments,  as  will  ultimately  be  fatal  to  their 
oppressors,  without  exposing  themselves  to  the  condem- 
nation of  an  honest  jury." 

For  convenience  of  arrangement  it  is  as  well  to  give 
at  once  the  purport  of  the  Seditious  Meetings  Bill  as  it 
became  law.  The  first  part  of  it  dealt  with  public 
meetings ;  the  second  part  with  political  lecturers  and 
debating  societies.  Briefly  stated,  the  Act  required 

1  Place,  MSS.,  27,808,  p.  36.  2  See  The  Tribune,  by  J.  Thelwall,  p. 

vi.     London,  1795. 


256         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRFSS     PART  i 

that  before  any  public  meeting  of  more  than  fifty  per- 
sons, which  was  not  convened  by  the  sheriff  or  other 
local  authorities,  could  take  place,  notice  must  first  be 
given  by  seven  householders,  and  duly  published,  and 
copies  of  such  notice  sent  to  the  local  magistrates.  This, 
so  far,  was  not  much  of  a  restriction.  But  the  Act 
further  directed,  and  herein  lay  the  sting  of  the  mea- 
sure, the  attendance  of  the  magistrate,  who  was  given 
very  wide  and  summary  powers  of  stopping  a  speech,  of 
arresting  the  speaker,  and  of  dispersing  the  meeting ; 
and  a  defiance  of  his  orders  was  made  felony,  rendering 
the  offender  subject  to  the  terrible  penalty  of  death. 

It  is,  however,  worth  giving  the  more  material  por- 
tions of  the  Act  in  its  own  words.  After  a  preamble, 
saying :  "  WHEREAS  assemblies  of  divers  persons,  col- 
lected for  the  purpose,  or  under  the  pretext,  of  deliber- 
ating on  public  grievances,  and  of  agreeing  on  Petitions, 
complaints,  remonstrances,  declarations,  or  other  ad- 
dresses to  the  King  or  Parliament,  have  of  late  been 
made  use  of  to  serve  the  ends  of  factious  and  seditious 
persons,  to  the  great  danger  of  the  public  peace,  and 
may  become  the  means  of  producing  confusion  and 
calamities  in  the  nation,"  it  enacted,  "  That  no  meeting 
of  any  description  of  persons,  exceeding  the  number  of 
fifty  persons  (other  than  and  except  county  or  borough 
meetings  duly  convened  by  the  sheriff,  or  other  local 
authority)  shall  be  holden,  for  the  purpose,  or  on  the 
pretext,  of  considering  of  or  preparing  any  Petition,  com- 
plaint, or  other  address  to  the  King,  or  Parliament,  for 
alteration  of  matters  established  in  Church  or  State/' l 
unless  full  notice  be  given  in  some  newspaper,  signed  by 
at  least  seven  householders  of  the  district,  and  sent  to 
the  clerk  of  the  peace,  who  shall  send  a  copy  to  "  three 

1  See  Act  36  Geo.  III.  cap.  8,  18th  December  1795. 


CHAP,  vii  SEDITIOUS  MEETINGS  ACT  257 

magistrates  at  least."  If  this  were  not  done  the  meet- 
ing would  be  deemed,  and  taken  to  be,  an  unlawful 
assembly  (section  3). 

And  it  was  further  enacted  (section  6)  that  if  more 
than  fifty  persons  assembled  contrary  to  the  provisions 
of  the  Act,  or  if  at  any  meeting  which  was  assembled, 
after  all  the  formalities  required  by  the  Act  had  been 
duly  complied  with,  anything  was  propounded  or 
deliberated  on  which  should  purport  "  that  any 
matter  or  thing  by  law  established  may  be  altered 
otherwise  than  by  the  authority  of  the  King,  Lords, 
and  Commons,  in  Parliament  assembled,"  or  should 
"  tend  to  incite  or  stir  up  the  people  to  hatred  or  con- 
tempt of  the  person  of  his  Majesty,  his  heirs  or  succes- 
sors, or  of  the  Government  and  Constitution  of  this 
realm,  as  by  law  established,"  it  should  be  lawful  for 
one  or  more  justices  of  the  peace,  by  proclamation 
in  the  King's  name,  to  require  or  command  the  persons 
there  assembled  to  disperse  themselves,  and  peaceably 
depart  to  their  habitations,  or  to  their  lawful  business  ; 
and  if  any  persons,  "  to  the  number  of  twelve  or  more, 
remain  or  continue  together  by  the  space  of  one  hour, 
after  such  command  or  request  is  made  by  proclama- 
tion, then  such  continuing  together  shall  be  adjudged 
felony,  and  the  offenders  shall  be  adjudged  felons,  and 
shall  suffer  death,  as  in  cases  of  felony,  without  benefit 
of  clergy."  Magistrates  were  authorised  and  empowered, 
on  receiving  a  notice  of  the  meeting,  to  resort  to  the 
meeting,  and  so  comically  extreme  was  the  anxiety  of 
Parliament  that  the  magistrates  should  be  at  the  meet- 
ing, that  it  was  enacted  (see  section  10)  that  any  one 
who  prevented  any  magistrate  "  going  to  attend  such 
meeting  "  might,  on  conviction,  "  suffer  death  "  without 
benefit  of  clergy. 


258         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

Once  there,  any  one  justice  was  given  practically 
despotic  power  for  the  suppression  of  free  speech,  or 
discussion,  for  the  Act  enacted  that  if  "  He  shall  think 
fit  to  order  any  person  who  shall  at  such  meeting  pro- 
pound or  maintain  any  proposition  for  altering  anything 
by  law  established,  otherwise  than  by  the  authority  of 
King,  Lords,  and  Commons,  in  Parliament  assembled, 
or  shall  wilfully  and  advisedly  make  any  proposition,  or 
hold  any  discourse  for  the  purpose  of  inciting  and 
stirring  up  the  people  to  hatred  and  contempt  of  his 
Majesty,  or  the  Government  or  Constitution  of  this 
realm  as  by  law  established,  to  be  taken  into  custody, 
to  be  dealt  with  according  to  law  ;  "  and  if  any  obstruc- 
tion to  the  order  were  made,  he  could  direct  the  dispersal 
of  the  meeting,  and  non-obedience  rendered  the  offender 
liable  to  the  penalty  of  death  without  benefit  of  clergy  ; 
and  if,  in  the  course  of  dispersing  any  meeting  after 
proclamation,  any  one  was  hurt,  maimed,  or  even 
killed,  the  magistrates,  or  peace  officers,  were  com- 
pletely indemnified. 

Thus  mild  was  the  law  in  those  days — a  law  which 
in  many  respects  was  a  revival  of  the  sanguinary  code 
of  Mary.  Thus  cruel  were  still  the  statesmen  of  Eng- 
land at  the  latter  end  of  the  eighteenth  century — Pitt, 
Dundas,  Wilberforce. 

This,  however,  did  not  quite  complete  the  measures 
for  the  repression  of  free  speech. 

Section  12  dealt  with  lecture  rooms  and  debating 
societies  : l  "  Whereas  certain  houses,  rooms,  or  places 
have  of  late  been  frequently  used  for  the  purpose  of 
delivering  lectures  and  discourses  on  and  concerning 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxxii.  societies,  and  with  having  "lentahelp- 

p.  380.     Sheridan,  in  a  speech  on  the  ing  hand  to  the  institution  of  one  of 

16th  November  1795,  taunts  Pitt  with  them,  the  Lyceum,  in  the  Strand,  and 

having  assiduously  attended  debating  having  spoken  in  a  mask  at  them. " 


CHAP,  vii  OPPOSITION  TO  THE  BILLS  259 

certain  supposed  public  grievances  and  matters  relating 
to  the  Laws,  Constitution,  and  Government,  and  Policy 
of  these  Kingdoms,  and  treating  and  debating  on  and 
concerning  the  same,  and  under  pretence  thereof  lectures 
or  discourses  have  been  delivered,  and  debates  held, 
tending  to  stir  up  hatred  and  contempt  of  his  Majesty's 
royal  person  and  of  the  Government  of  the  realm  as  by 
law  established,"  it  was  enacted  that  all  such  houses  for 
admission  to  which  a  charge  was  made,  should,  unless 
previously  licensed  by  two  magistrates,  be  deemed  to 
be  disorderly  houses,  and  the  persons  allowing  the 
meeting  or  lectures,  or  taking  any  part  in  the  same, 
were  made  liable  to  heavy  pecuniary  penalties.  Even 
in  a  licensed  house  a  magistrate  was  to  have  the  right 
of  admission  whenever  he  chose. 

The  Act  was  to  continue  in  force  for  three  years, 
and  until  the  end  of  the  then  next  session  of  Parliament, 
that  is  to  say,  till  well  on  in  1799. 

These  Bills  met  with  a  storm  of  disapprobation  both 
inside  and  outside  Parliament.  From  the  6th  November, 
when  Lord  Grenville  gave  notice  of  the  intentions  of 
the  Government  on  the  subject,  down  to  the  middle  of 
December,  when  the  Bills  were  read  a  third  time  and 
passed,  the  contest  raged  hot  and  furious. 

Fox  led  the  Opposition  in  the  House  of  Commons.1 

"  The  proposal  struck  him  with  horror.  Its  essence 
was  detestable.  The  people,  he  had  always  thought, 
had  a  right  to  discuss  the  topics  from  which  their 
grievances  arose.  In  all  instances  they  had  a  right 
to  complain  by  petition,  and  to  remonstrate  to  either 
House  of  Parliament,  or,  if  they  pleased,  to  the  King- 
exclusively  ;  but  now  it  seems  they  are  not  to  do  so, 
unless  notice  be  given  to  a  magistrate  that  he  may 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxxii.  p.  277. 


26o         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

"  become  a  witness  of  their  proceedings.  There  were  to 
be  witnesses  of  every  word  that  every  man  spoke. 
This  magistrate,  this  jealous  witness,  was  to  form  his 
opinion  on  the  propriety  of  the  proceedings ;  and  if  he 
should  think  that  anything  that  was  said  had  a  tendency 
to  sedition,  he  had  power  to  arrest  the  man  who  uttered 
it.  Not  only  so,  he  had  power  to  dissolve  the  meeting 
at  his  own  will."  .  .  .  And  then,  after  describing  a 
meeting  where  a  magistrate  exercised  this  power,  he 
said  :  "I  ask  if  this  can  be  called  a  meeting  of  free 
people  ?  Did  ever  a  free  people  meet  so  ?  Did  ever  a 
free  State  exist  so  ?  Did  any  man  ever  hypothetically 
state  the  possibility  of  the  existence  of  Freedom  under 
such  restrictions  ?  Good  God  Almighty,  sir !  is  it 
possible  that  the  feelings  of  the  people  of  this  country 
should  be  thus  insulted  ?  Is  it  possible  to  make  the 
people  of  this  country  believe  that  this  plan  is  anything 
but  a  total  annihilation  of  their  liberty  ?  .  .  . 

"  We  have  seen  and  we  have  heard  of  revolutions 
in  different  States.  Were  they  owing  to  freedom  of 
popular  opinions  ?  Were  they  owing  to  the  facility  of 
popular  meetings  ?  No,  sir ;  they  were  owing  to  the 
reverse  of  these.  .  .  . 

"  It  has  been  the  characteristic  blessing  of  our  Con- 
stitution that  it  admitted  of  various  ways  in  which  the 
opinions  of  the  public,  nay,  if  you  please,  in  which  the 
ill  opinions,  the  prejudices,  and  the  ill  humours  of  the 
body  politic  may  have  vent.  And  if  their  grievances 
be  true,  they  may  be  redressed ;  if  the  allegation  of 
them  be  false,  the  evil  effects  of  their  persisting  in  com- 
plaint may  be  prevented ;  but  if  you  take  away  their 
hitherto  well-known  and  legal  method  of  stating  their 
disapprobation  of  the  measures  of  Government,  you  bring 
tRe  best  part  of  the  Constitution  of  this  country  upon 


CHAP,  vii  FREEDOM  OF  SPEECH  261 

a  level  with  the  most  despotic ;  you  bring  the  people  of 
this  country  to  the  terrible  situation  of  those  who  have 
no  alternative  between  a  total  and  abject  submission  to 
the  tyrannical  Acts  of  Government,  and  a  remedy  by 
violence  and  force  of  arms.  .  .  . 

"If  you  prevent  discussion,  if  you  stop  up  this 
vent  for  the  humour  of  the  body  politic,  there  can 
be  no  alternative  between  abject  submission  and  violent 
resistance." 

In  another  speech  (16th  November)  he  said  :  "You 
may  prevent  men  from  complaining,  but  you  cannot 
prevent  them  from  feeling." 

In  another  (25th  November)  he  dwelt  on  the  grand 
effects  of  freedom  of  speech.  "  By  the  passing  of  the  Bill 
the  people  would  have  lost,  it  was  said,  a  great  deal.  A 
great  deal — ay,  all  that  is  worth  preserving.  For  you  will 
have  lost  the  spirit,  the  fire,  the  freedom,  the  boldness,  the 
energy  of  the  British  character,  and  with  them  its  best 
virtue.  I  say  it  is  not  the  written  law  of  the  Constitu- 
tion of  England ;  it  is  not  the  law  that  is  to  be  found  in 
books  that  has  constituted  the  true  principle  of  freedom 
in  any  country  at  any  time.  No ;  it  is  the  energy,  the 
boldness  of  a  man's  mind,  which  prompts  him  to  speak, 
not  in  private,  but  in  large  and  popular  assemblies,  that 
constitutes,  that  creates  in  a  State,  the  spirit  of  freedom. 
This  is  the  principle  which  gives  life  to  liberty ;  without 
it  the  human  character  is  a  stranger  to  freedom.  .  .  . 

"  How  did  we  rise  into  our  eminence  ?  By  the  written 
law  ?  No.  By  the  boldness  of  the  English  character 
arising  out  of  the  freedom  of  speech.  This  is  the  prin- 
ciple which  led  you  on  to  fame.  Take  away  the 
freedom  of  speech  or  of  writing,  and  the  foundation  of 
all  your  freedom  is  gone."  l 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxxii.  p.  420. 


262         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

The  centre  of  the  fight  raged  around  the  clauses 
directing  the  attendance  of  a  magistrate  or  magistrates 
at  the  meeting,  and  the  giving  a  single  magistrate 
power  to  order  the  meeting  to  disperse,  or  to  order  the 
arrest  of  a  speaker.  The  provision  was  nothing  less 
than  the  establishment  of  a  censorship  of  the  Platform, 
of  the  very  worst  character.  No  Government  even 
then  would  have  dared  to  propose  a  censorship  of  the 
Press.  The  Platform,  however,  was  not  yet  so  powerful 
but  that  at  least  the  attempt  might  be  made  so  far  as  it 
was  concerned.  It  was  true  that  certain  conditions 
were  laid  down  before  the  magistrate  was  justified  in 
interfering,  but  they  were  so  very  wide  that,  practically, 
people  had  no  safeguard  against  the  violence  of  some 
hotheaded  partisan  magistrate,  who,  as  Grey  expressed 
it,  "  by  a  tyrannical  and  capricious  mandate,  might 
frustrate  every  purpose  for  which  a  meeting  was  called." 

Woodward,  in  one  of  his  humorous  sketches,  en- 
titled "  Liberty  of  Speech,"  has  admirably  represented 
the  state  of  the  case.  A  trembling-looking  orator  is 
depicted  standing  on  a  stump  of  a  tree,  while  a  fierce- 
looking  bully,  grasping  a  heavy  bludgeon,  says  to  him  : 
"Go  on.  Speak  your  mind  freely.  Tell  all  your 
grievances,  but  if  you  don't  stop  when  I  tell  you,  I'll 
knock  you  down." 

Fox  did  not  exaggerate  when  he  said :  "  For  in- 
stance, were  he  in  a  public  meeting  to  state  coolly  and 
dispassionately  the  inadequacy  of  our  representation, 
and  the  disproportionate  influence  of  '  Old  Sarum '  to 
some  large  and  populous  towns  in  choosing  their  repre- 
sentatives, he  might  be  taken  up  for  sedition,  a  justice 
or  magistrate  might  dissolve  the  meeting,  and  on  their 
refusing  to  disperse,  he  might  call  on  the  military  to 
murder  them." 


CHAP,  vii  SUPPRESSION  OF  FREE  SPEECH  263 

Opposition  in  the  House  of  Lords  was  restricted  to 
the  few  Liberal  peers  still  left,  who  made  a  strong 
protest  against  both  the  Bills.  The  Duke  of  Bedford 
pointed  out  that  "  Such  attempts  might  silence  the 
voice  of  complaint,  but  they  cannot  reach  the  mind, 
which  will  brood  over  the  injustice ;  they  may  restrain 
and  fetter  the  actions  of  men,  but  cannot  make  them 
love  the  Constitution  or  reconcile  them  to  the  Govern- 
ment." 

The  best  speech  was  made  by  Lord  Thurlow.  He, 
too,  dwelt  on  the  novel  addition  to  the  power  of  magis- 
trates, and  said  that  if  the  words  whereby  magistrates 
were  given  the  power  of  taking  all  persons  into  custody 
who  should  hold  any  discourse  for  the  purpose  of 
"  inciting  or  stirring  up  the  people  to  hatred  or  con- 
tempt of  the  Government  and  Constitution  of  the 
realm"  were  allowed  to  stand  in  the  Bill,  "there  was 
an  end  at  once  of  all  discussion  with  a  view  to  Parlia- 
mentary reform."  l 

"How  was  it  possible,  in  agitating  the  question  of 
Parliamentary  reform,  to  forbear  mentioning  the  in- 
equality in  point  of  importance,  inhabitants,  etc.  etc., 
between  the  county  of  Yorkshire  and  the  borough  of 
Old  Sarum  without  derision  and  ridicule,  which  might, 
by  an  ignorant  magistrate,  be  construed  to  '  incite 
to  hatred  and  contempt  of  the  Government  and 
Constitution  as  by  law  established,'  and,  acting  upon 
that  misconstruction,  he  might  take  the  party  into  cus- 
tody, and  dissolve  the  meeting."  .  .  . 

All  in  vain,  however,  was  any  opposition.  Just  as 
surely  as  a  stone  thrown  into  the  air  will  fall  to  the 
earth  again,  so  sure  was  a  Bill  once  introduced  by  the 
Government  in  those  times  to  be  carried  through  both 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxxii.  p.  540. 


264         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

Houses  of  Parliament.  To  such  small  numbers  had  the 
defenders  of  freedom  of  meeting  and  speech  dwindled 
down  that  only  forty-two  members  voted  against  leave 
to  introduce  the  Bill  into  the  House  of  Commons.  Pitt 
himself  defended  it  and  supported  it  with  all  sorts  of 
arguments  and  pleas.  He  denied  that  the  Bill  abridged 
or  limited  the  right  of  petitioning  Parliament,  "  the 
channel  through  which  Petitions  usually  came  being  left 
open  "  ;  but  though  the  channel  may  have  been  left  open, 
as  a  matter  of  fact  it  was  so  commanded  that  nothing 
could  pass  through  except  by  permission. 

He  appealed  to  the  fears  of  the  House  :  "  Was  it 
possible  for  the  House  not  to  have  felt  the  danger  of 
some  late  meetings,  and  did  they  not  feel  the  necessity 
of  checking  them  ?  If  they  did  not,  he  would  only  say 
that  this  was  not  the  time  to  trifle ;  if  they  did  not 
seize  the  opportunity  of  applying  a  preventive,  they 
might  soon  lose  the  power  of  exercising  their  own 
functions  in  that  House.  For  this  reason  it  was  highly 
necessary  to  grant  new  discretionary  powers  to  magis- 
trates to  disperse  meetings.1  ...  In  fine,  the  sole 
object  of  the  Bill  was,  that  the  people  should  look  to 
Parliament,  and  to  Parliament  alone,  for  the  redress  of 
such  grievances  as  they  might  have  to  complain  of, 
with  a  confident  reliance  of  relief  being  afforded  them, 
if  their  complaints  should  be  well  founded  and  practi- 
cally remediable.  That  it  should  be  understood  that 
the  condition  of  no  man  was  so  abject  but  he  could  find 
a  legal  means  of  bringing  his  grievances  before  his 
representatives  in  Parliament,  and  subject  them  to 
their  consideration  ;  but  that  he  would  not  leave  a  door 
open,  through  which  a  torrent  might  rush  in,  and  over- 
whelm the  Constitution."  He  was  vigorously  supported 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxxii.  p.  361. 


CHAP,  vii  SUPPRESSION  OF  FREE  SPEECH  265 

by  his  party,  even  Wilberforce — he  who  was  leading  a 
lifelong  struggle  against  slavery  in  foreign  countries — 
sided  with  the  Government  in  enforcing  the  slavery  of 
silence  in  this.  He  said :  "  For  the  last  three  years 
attempts  had  been  making  by  every  species  of  art  and 
industry  to  poison  the  minds  of  the  people  of  this 
country,  to  instil  into  them  jealousies  and  suspicions, 
and  to  excite  a  contempt  for  the  British  Constitution. 
.  .  .  Various  means  had  been  taken  to  put  a  stop  to 
these  proceedings,  but  in  vain.  .  .  .  Lectures  were 
given,  and  harangues  delivered,  of  the  most  seditious 
and  inflammatory  nature ;  handbills  and  prints  of  the 
most  atrocious  description  wrere  circulated.  .  .  .  What 
then  was  to  be  done  ?  Were  they  to  be  permitted  to 
pursue  in  all  our  great  manufacturing  towns  what  they 
had  begun  in  more  than  one  of  them,  that  same  system 
of  popular  assemblies,  and  debating  clubs,  and  seditious 
harangues  which  they  had  introduced  into  the  capital  ? 
Surelv  it  was  hi^h  time  for  Parliament  to  interfere  in 

•/  o 

order  to  stop  this  growing  mischief."  l 

One  Government  supporter  thought  that  the  liberty 
of  the  Press,  which  would  continue  to  exist  in  all  its 
force,  afforded  "  a  mode  of  discussing  all  popular  and 
political  topics  that  he  thought  adequate  to  all  the  pur- 
poses of  the  community." 

Another  said  :  "  The  only  question  now  was  whether 
the  Bill  was  sufficient  to  meet  the  exigencv  of  the  occa- 

»/ 

sion." 

These  extracts  are  sufficient.  There  runs  throughout 
the  whole  debates  a  vein  of  alarm  and  panic  plainly  dis- 
cernible. But  there  is  also  very  plainly  apparent  a 
determination  on  the  part  of  the  Government  and  its 
followers  and  dependents  to  exaggerate  and  make  the 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxxii.  p.  292. 


266         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

most  of  the  meetings  and  speeches,  and  to  turn  them  to 
account  as  a  justification  for  the  enactment  of  such 
measures  as  would  prop  up  and  give  a  new  lease  of  life 
to  the  influence  of  the  Crown,  by  which  so  many  people 
so  largely  profited,  and   to   the   maintenance  of  that 
system  of  Government  which  vested  the  whole  authority 
and  resources  of  the  State  in  the  hands  of  the  Crown  and 
of  a  limited  number  of  the  aristocracy  and  upper  classes. 
What  else  can  account  for  the  ridiculous  exaggera- 
tion of  the  Attorney-General  that  "  he  was  persuaded 
that  the  very  existence  of  the  country  was  at  stake  ? " 
What  else  can  account  for  Dundas  appealing  to  the 
reminiscences  of  the  Gordon  riots  in  1780  as  an  argu- 
ment  for   the   Government   Bills :    "  Since    they   had 
experienced  such  a  lamentable  instance  of  the  dangers 
resulting  from  popular  meetings,  since  they  had  seen 
the  evils  which  threatened  the  Constitution  from  such 
combinations,  would  they  hesitate  to  pass  the  Bill  ? " 
What  else  was  the  meaning  of  the  indictments,  the  year 
before,  for  the  highest  crime,  high  treason,  when  a  con- 
viction could  easily  have  been  secured  on  a  less  serious 
charge  ?     The  panic  of  the  French  Revolution  was  still 
upon  them ;  the  to  them  awful  example  that  a  people 
could  change  or  modify  its  own  Government  was  before 
their  eyes ;  and  accordingly  a  demand  for  reform  was 
exaggerated  into  revolution,  and  a  claim  for  equal  laws 
was    interpreted,    or    wilfully    misinterpreted,    as    an 
attempt  to  effect  equality  of  ranks  and  a  division  of 
property.     Fox  laid  down  a  great  principle  when  he 
said :  "In   great   meetings  he   always   conceived  that 
their  ostensible  object  was  their  real  object,  because  it 
was  impossible  to  bring  20,000  to  30,000  persons  to 
practice  dissimulation  in  unison."1 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxxii.  p.  462. 


CHAP,  vii      AGITATION  AGAINST  THE  TWO  ACTS  267 

But  neither  the  Government  nor  any  of  their 
hangers-on  would  ever  accept  the  avowed  and  declared 
object  of  Parliamentary  reform  as  the  real  one  ;  and  to 
whole  classes  were  imputed  what  the  most  foolish  and 
criminal  had  said  or  done.  With  a  Government  and 
a  Parliamentary  majority  in  this  temper,  argument, 
reason,  nothing  was  of  avail  to  turn  them  from  their 
purpose. 

The  real  injustice  of  the  Government  was  attributing 
all  the  existing  discontent  to  the  meetings.  There 
were  other  causes  which  they  steadily  ignored.  The 
summer  of  1795  had  been  cold  and  wet,  and  there  was 
a  scanty  harvest.  The  price  of  wheat,  which  had  been 
fifty-eight  shillings  a  quarter  in  February,  rose  in 
August  to  one  hundred  and  eight  shillings,  and  though 
it  fell  again  in  September,  it  was  still  seventy-eight 
shillings.  The  lower  classes  were  in  a  state  of  great 
privation,  and  there  had  been  many  tumults  for  bread. 
There  was  the  heavy  pressure  too  of  the  war  taxes, 
and  it  was  plain  the  real  roots  of  the  popular  dis- 
affection were,  first  and  mainly,  the  high  prices  of 
provisions,  and  next  the  pressure  of  the  taxes.  More- 
over, with  some,  the  war  was  intensely  unpopular, 
being  regarded  as  an  attempt  on  the  part  of  the 
Government  to  reinstate  the  despicable  Bourbon  tyrants 
on  the  throne  of  France,  and  to  subject  the  people  of 
France  to  their  infamous  rule.  But  it  was  unpopular  too, 
because  the  lower  classes  felt  that  as  long  as  it  lasted, 
they  could  hope  for  little  amelioration  in  their  material 
condition. 

Parliament,  however,  was  no  longer  the  only  place 
where  opposition  could  be  made  to  objectionable  legis- 
lative proposals.  The  Platform  had  come  into  existence, 
and  henceforth  Governments  would  have  to  submit  to 


268         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

their  proposals  being  discussed  outside  Parliament  as 
well  as  inside.  On  this  occasion  the  opposition  in 
Parliament  to  the  two  Bills  was  as  nothing  to  the 
opposition  outside.  "The  agitation  throughout  the 
country  was  extreme."  l  The  Annual  Register,  writing 
contemporaneously,  said,2  "The  public  was  no  less 
occupied  than  Parliament  itself,  in  the  discussion  of  the 
two  Bills  pending  in  both  Houses.  The  novelty  of  the 
measures  proposed,  their  inimical  tendency  to  the  long- 
established  usages  of  the  nation,  their  direct  aim  at  its 
liberty,  and  the  daringness  of  Ministers  in  bringing 
forward  so  undeniable  an  infringement  of  rights  that 
had  been  respected  by  all  preceding  administrations : 
these  combined  motives  excited  an  alarm,  which  was 
felt  in  every  part  of  the  nation.  .  .  . 

"  Meetings  and  consultations,  both  private  and 
public,  were  held  everywhere.  Clubs  and  associations 
were  formed  for  the  purpose  of  opposing  the  Bills  by 
every  method  not  liable  to  the  cognisance  of  the  law. 
Never  had  there  appeared,  in  the  memory  of  the  oldest 
man,  so  firm  and  decided  a  plurality  of  adversaries  to 
the  ministerial  measures  as  on  this  occasion ;  the 
interest  of  the  public  seemed  so  deeply  at  stake,  that 
individuals,  not  only  of  the  decent,  but  of  the  most 
vulgar  professions,  gave  up  a  considerable  portion  of 
their  time  and  occupations  in  attending  the  numerous 
meetings  that  were  called  in  every  part  of  the  kingdom, 
to  the  professed  intent  of  counteracting  this  attempt  of 
the  Ministry." 

The  Whig  Club  held  a  special  meeting  on  the  10th 
November,  nearly  fifty  lords  and  members  of  the  House 
of  Commons  being  at  it.  The  Duke  of  Bedford,  who 
presided,  said,  "  The  Bills  were  a  direct  attack  on  the 

1  Place,  MSS.,  27,808,  p.  55.  2  Annual  Register,  1796,  p.  38. 


CHAP,  vii       AGITATION  AGAINST  THE  TWO  ACTS  269 

freedom  of  the  Press  and  of  Speech — on  all  the  rights 
of  popular  discussion  and  even  on  the  sacred  right  of 
petition." l  Fox  said  there  ought  to  be  meetings  every- 
where, and  a  resolution  was  passed  that  meetings  of 
the  people  in  their  respective  districts  should  be  im- 
mediately called  for  the  purpose  of  petitioning  Parlia- 
ment against  the  Bill.  The  London  Corresponding- 
Society  promptly  convened  a  meeting,  which  was  held 
on  the  12th  of  November  in  the  field  near  Copenhagen 
House.2 

The  meeting  was  to  have  commenced  business  at 
eleven  o'clock  in  the  forenoon,  but  the  immense  crowds 
which  were  seen  approaching  from  all  directions  induced 
postponement  of  the  business  till  half-past  twelve,  when 
J.  Ashley,  R.  Hodgson,  and  J.  Thelwall,  from  the  three 
tribunes  or  Platforms  which  had  been  erected,  explained 
the  mode  of  proceeding.  It  was  proposed  to  pursue 
exactly  the  same  course  at  each  place,  and  as  nearly  as 
possible  at  the  same  time,  so  that  there  should,  in  fact, 
be  three  distinct  meetings  for  the  one  purpose.  The 
mode  of  voting  recommended  was  this  :  After  a  Resolu- 
tion or  a  Petition  was  read,  the  question  was  to  be  put 
in  the  affirmative  by  the  holding  up  of  a  white  hand- 
kerchief on  the  rostrum,  the  negative  by  holding  up 
a  hat.  "  Citizen  "  William  Duane  was  appointed  chair- 
man, and  at  one  o'clock,  on  a  signal  made  by  him,  the 
real  business  of  the  day  began  at  each  of  the  platforms.3 

An  Address,  Remonstrance,  and  Petition  to  the 
King  was  adopted.  The  petitioners  complained  that 
"  instead  of  redress,  we  have  met  with  calumny  ;  instead 
of  alleviation  of  existing  oppressions,  we  are  threatened 
with  the  total  extinction  of  our  yet  remaining  liberties. 

1  The  History  of  the  Two  Acts,  p.  120.  3  Place,  MSS. ,  12th  November  1795 

2  Ibid.  p.  125.  27,808,  p.  54. 


270         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

"Parliamentary  corruption  and  an  unjust  and 
ruinous  war  have  reduced  us  to  beggary  and  famine ; 
and  when  we  call  for  the  reformation  of  the  one,  and  the 
relinquishment  of  the  other,  Bills  are  brought  into 
Parliament  by  your  Majesty's  Ministers,  which  make  it 
felony  and  high  treason  to  give  a  tongue  to  those 
miseries  we  cannot  but  feel. 

And  he  was  asked  to  tell  his  Ministers  "  to  turn  their 
attention  to  the  redress  of  existing  abuses  instead  of 
laying  additional  burthens  and  restrictions  upon  his 
already  oppressed  and  unhappy  people." 

A  Petition  to  the  Lords,  and  another  of  "  nearly 
400,000  Britons "  to  the  House  of  Commons,  were 
agreed  to,  and  several  resolutions  were  passed. 

"  '  Citizen '  Jones  addressed  the  meeting  in  a  most 
impressive  manner.  He  began  by  a  solemn  appeal  to 
the  meeting  on  the  momentous  occasion  which  had 
called  them  together,  by  calling  to  'their  recollection  that 
they  were  then  met  to  petition  the  Legislature  against 
the  passing  of  an  Act  which,  if  once  become  a  law, 
would  totally  annihilate  every  grand  and  essential 
privilege  which,  as  Englishmen,  they  had  hitherto  prided 
themselves  on  possessing.  He  repudiated  any  connec- 
tion of  their  Society  with  the  recent  outrage  on  the 
King ;  and  dared  any  one  to  deny,  if  they  could,  that  the 
Society  had  uniformly  exerted  its  efforts  in  support  of 
the  people's  rights,  in  a  manner  which  held  forth  a 
pattern  to  every  one,  for  peace,  order,  and  .decorum.  It 
was  by  a  strict  adherence  to  these  modes  alone,  he  said, 
that  the  friends  of  freedom  and  reform  could  ever  hope 
to  carry  the  great  and  important  question  for  which 
they  contended.  He  conjured  the  meeting  to  reflect 
that  everything  dear  to  man  was  now  at  stake.  ...  He 
declared  that  he  hoped  to  see  the  day  when  the  Minis- 


CHAP,  vii       AGITATION  AGAINST  THE  TWO  ACTS  271 

ters  who  had  advised  such  arbitrary  measures  against 
the  long  established  rights  and  privileges  of  the  people, 
would  answer  for  it  with  their  heads.1 

"  Several  other  citizens  spoke  with  considerable  force 
and  energy,"  and  then  "this  astonishingly  numerous 
assembly  separated  in  the  most  cheerful  manner,  and 
evinced,  beyond  a  possibility  of  doubt,  that  thousands 
of  men  may  and  can  meet  in  so  glorious  and  exalted  a 
cause  as  that  of  their  dearest  rights  and  privileges, 
however  their  indignation  may  be  aroused  against  those 
who  attack  them,  and  still  preserve  their  temper  when 
patience  is  necessary." 

Place,  who  was  of  course  there  observing  everything, 
says :  "  I  remained  on  one  of  the  platforms  after  the 
business  was  concluded,  and  saw  the  people  disperse 
in  the  most  orderly  and  quiet  manner.  In  half  an 
hour  not  one  was  to  be  seen  in  any  of  the  surrounding 
fields.  The  meeting,  as  is  usual  on  such  occasions,  was 
attended  by  men,  women,  and  children." 

On  the  16th  November,  a  few  days  after  this  great 
meeting,  another  great  meeting  assembled  in  the  Palace 
Yard,  Westminster,  some  10,000  to  12,000  people  being  at 
it.  Fox  was  chairman.  He  opened  the  proceedings  of 
the  day,  and  made  something  more  than  what  Horace 
Walpole  had  once  called  "  a  warm  speech." !  "A  daring 
attempt  has  been  made  upon  your  liberties,"  he  said ; 
"an  attempt  to  subvert  the  Constitution  of  England. 
The  Bills  are  intended  to  complete  the  overthrow  of  the 
liberties  of  the  people  of  England.  The  Bill  of  Rights 
is  proposed  to  be  finally  repealed  that  you  shall  be 
deprived  of  the  right  of  petitioning  ;  the  people  of  Eng: 
land  are  forbidden  expressly  from  even  discussing  the 
conduct  of  their  rulers." 

1  The  History  of  the  Two  Acts,  p.  133.  -  Ibid.  p.  232. 


272         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

The  Duke  of  Bedford  then  spoke.  Grey  read  the 
proposed  Petition,  "which  was  highly  approved  of." 
Lord  Hood,  the  other  member  for  Westminster,  spoke 
against  the  Petition,  and  was  quietly  listened  to.  His 
speech  afforded  Sheridan  the  opportunity  of  a  speech 
which  was  followed  by  "  prodigious  applause,"  and  then, 
after  the  adoption  of  an  Address  to  the  King,  congratu- 
lating him  on  his  escape,  the  meeting  came  to  an  end. 
A  contemporary  newspaper  thus  describes  the  general 
demeanour  of  the  meeting  : 

"We  never  witnessed  a  meeting  of  near  10,000  or 
12,000  men  where  order,  regularity,  and  decorum  were 
more  perfectly  observed.  The  effect  of  this  conduct  in 
a  multitude  that  spread  in  every  direction  as  far  as  the 
eye  could  reach  was  truly  impressive.  When  they  held 
up  their  hands  to  signify  their  approbation,  nothing 
could  be  more  interesting  than  the  sight.  The  sky  was 
rent  with  the  acclamation  of  their  consent,  and  having 
thus  expressed  their  feelings  upon  every  question  as  it 
was  put,  they  returned  again  to  the  same  attentive 
silence,  which  they  maintained  while  every  one  of  the 
noble  and  honourable  persons  who  addressed  them  were 
speaking."  l 

The  Platform  was  active  now  in  such  a  way  as  had 
never  before  been  witnessed.  Meetings  were  held  in  a 
large  number  of  places  against  the  Bills.  Meetings 
were  held  also  in  favour  of  the  Bills.  Some  meet- 
ings were  held  of  persons  both  for  and  against  the  Bills, 
where  warm  discussions  ensued,  and  the  majority  car- 
ried the  day.  Thus,  in  one  way  or  another,  the  subject 
was  being  discussed  by  the  public  to  an  extent  that 
hitherto  no  other  question  had  ever  been  discussed  ;  and 
the  greater  part  of  the  discussion  was  carried  on  by 

1  The  History  of  the  Two  Acts,  p.  239. 


CHAP,  vii       AGITATION  AGAINST  THE  TWO  ACTS  273 

means  of  the  Platform.  If  the  Platform  was  in  the  end 
to  be  suppressed,  it  certainly  was  having  an  active  time 
before  extinction. 

The  Livery  of  London  met  and  "  instructed  "  their 
members  to  vote  against  the  Bills.  A  large  number  of 
counties,  and  almost  every  town  of  note  in  the  king- 
dom, held  meetings,  and  agreed  to  Remonstrances  or 
Petitions.  For  a  period  of  nearly  six  weeks  the  country 
was  in  a  Platform  ferment,  and  Petition  after  Petition 
was  presented  to  the  Houses  of  Parliament,  giving  rise 
there  to  constantly  renewed  debates.1 

Even  Edinburgh,  where  a  rampant  Toryism  kept 
down  with  its  iron  hoof  every  stirring  of  Liberalism, 
added  a  voice  to  the  general  outcry. 

A  meeting  was  held  in  the  Circus,  "  which  their 
inexperience  at  that  time  of  such  assemblages  had  made 
them  neglect  to  take  any  means  to  light ;  and  Henry 
Erskine  was  obliged  to  begin  his  speech  in  the  dark.  A 
lad,  however,  struggled  through  the  crowd  with  a  dirty 
tallow  candle  in  his  hand,  which  he  held  up  during  the 
rest  of  the  address  before  the  orator's  face.2 

It  is  a  remarkable  testimony  to  the  appreciation  of 
the  value  of  the  Platform  as  an  instrument  for  the 
expression  of  public  opinion,  that  at  the  same  time  that 
Ministers  and  their  dependents  were  inveighing  and 
legislating  against  meetings  and  public  discussions,  they 
were  themselves  encouraging  them  for  their  own  ends. 
Whilst  the  Seditious  Meetings  Bill  was  under  discussion 
in  Parliament,  meeting  after  meeting  was  organised,  and 
address  on  address,  petition  on  petition,  presented  to 
the  King,  and  to  both  Houses  of  Parliament,  full  of 

1  It  is  said  that  65  Petitions  for  the  signatures. — See  History  of  Two  Acts, 

Bills,   with  about   30,000   signatures,  pp.  826,  827. 

were    presented  ;    and    94    Petitions          2  See  Life  of  Lord  Jeffrey,  by  Lord 

against  the  Bills,  with  over  130,000  Cockburu,  p.  208. 


274         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

abhorrence  of  public  meetings,  and  denunciations  of 
public  speeches.  In  utter  oblivion  that  they  owed 
their  liberties  to  the  power  of  free  discussion,  here  were 
large  numbers  of  men  inveighing  against  the  practice 
which  they  themselves  were  indulging  in,  and  urging  its 
suppression.  The  King  and  Parliament  were  besought 
by  one  place  to  "repress,  prevent,  and  punish  these 
hitherto  unheard-of  enormities";  by  another,  "that 
these  seditious  and  tumultuous  meetings,  tending  evi- 
dently to  anarchy  and  confusion,  may  be  effectually 
suppressed " ;  by  another  to  stop  these  meetings, 
"  which  are  the  fountain  from  which  the  most  alarm- 
ing and  calamitous  evils  are  likely  to  proceed "  ;  by 
another,  "  to  suppress  those  unlawful  assemblies  and 
seminaries  of  anarchy  "  ;  by  another,  "  to  suppress  those 
tumultuous  and  illegal  meetings  where  the  sacred  name 
of  liberty  is  used  only  as  a  cloak  of  maliciousness,  and 
where  the  preachers  of  sedition  conceal  from  the  deluded 
multitude  their  designs  of  subverting  the  Constitution 
under  the  specious  pretence  of  reforming  it " ;  from 
another,  "  whose  hearts  shrink  from  those  wicked  and 
atrocious  principles  hatched  by  the  zealots  of  confusion 
to  subvert  the  peace  of  society  and  all  good  govern- 
ment " ;  from  another,  "  to  prevent  those  seditious 
meetings  and  assemblies  in  which  we  trace  the  source 
and  origin  of  every  danger  which  threatens  your  Majesty 
and  the  nation."  l 

The  climax  of  the  virulence  and  acrimony  rampant 
at  this  time  against  every  one  connected  with  the  popular 
cause  is  to  be  found  in  the  "  form  of  prayer  and  thanks- 
giving to  Almighty  God,"  composed  by  the  dignitaries 
of  the  State  Church,  for  the  escape  of  the  King,  in  which 

1  It  is  stated  that  the  579  addresses       lation,  and  216  approving  of  the  Bills, 
were  sent  to  the  King — 363  of  congratu-       —See  History  of  the  Two  Acts,  p.  822. 


CHAP,  vii  STATE  CHURCH  MALEDICTIONS  275 

the  people  were  told  by  their  Church  to  pray  in  these 
words : 

"  Cloath  his  enemies  with  shame,  bring  to  light 
their  conspiracies,  and  disappoint  their  treasons.  Touch 
them,  0  merciful  God,  with  remorse.  Give  them  grace 
to  see  and  abhor  the  sinfulness  of  their  ways,  and  the 
madness  of  their  counsels.  But  if  they  still  harden 
their  hearts,  and  are  incorrigible  in  their  wickedness, 
let  them  perish  by  Thy  just  judgments,  that  others,  by 
the  example  of  their  punishment,  may  take  warning. 
.  .  .  These  things  we  humbly  beg,  0  merciful  God,"  l 
etc.  etc. 

When  we  remember  that  whole  classes  of  the  people 
who  were  agitating  for  reform,  or  even  dared  to  affirm 
that  the  House  of  Commons  ought  to  be  reformed,  were 
habitually  stigmatised  as  "  enemies  "  of  their  country,  and 
of  the  King  and  Constitution,2  and  when  we  see  the 
Church  thus  calling  upon  its  members  to  pray  to  God 
that  they  might  perish  by  His  just  judgments,  we  have 
a  flood  of  light  poured  upon  the  acrimonious  spirit  of 
the  times,  and  can  understand  better  the  vehemence  of 
the  cry  raised  by  some  for  the  suppression  of  public 
meetings. 

While  ready  enough  to  approve  of  Petitions  in 
favour  of  their  policy,  the  Government  could  not  con- 
ceal their  wrath  when  the  Petitions  came  pouring  in 
against  it. 

Several  Government  supporters  maintained  that  the 
Petitions  against  the  Bills  had  been  obtained  by  the 

1  History  of  the  Two  Acts,  p.  196.  the  free  spirit   of   our   fathers,    as  a 

•  See  a  Speech  of  Erskine's  at  the  Jacobin,   a   Democrat,   a    Republican, 

Whig  Club,  19th  December  1795  :  "  It  and  to  tax  every  man  as  a  seeker  of 

had  been  the  fashion  of  late  to  consider  anarchy    and     confusion    because    he 

every  man  who  talked  of  liberty,  and  sought  for  the  free  and  pure  adminis- 

who  presumed  to  think  and  act  with  tration  of  the  Constitution." 


276         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

grossest  calumnies  and  the  foulest  misrepresentations, 
and  Pitt  said :  "  They  should  inquire  how  far  these 
Petitions  had  been  obtained  by  calumny,  by  fraud,  by 
artifice,  and  by  shameful  and  scandalous  misrepresenta- 
tions." 

The  London  Corresponding  Society  had  certainly 
given  cause  for  criticism.  Their  Petition  of  the  21st 
November  was  said  to  be  from  400,000 ;  it  was  pre- 
sented to  Parliament  on  the  23d,  and  it  was  found  to 
be  signed  by  12,113.  But  Pitt  was  still  more  wroth 
with  people  who  moved  people  to  petition.  He  said : 
"  He  must  remark  that  he  did  not  consider  those  to  be 
the  best  friends  of  the  Constitution,  or  the  lower  ranks 
of  the  people,  who  were  always  goading  them  to  bring- 
forward  Petitions,  and  encouraging  the  agitation  and 
discussion  of  public  affairs,  among  those,  too,  who,  of 
all  men,  from  their  education,  their  habits  of  life, 
and  their  means  of  information,  were  indisputably  the 
least  capable  of  exercising  sound  judgment  on  such 
topics." 

Dundas  also  inveighed  against  meetings.  "  The 
great  patriots  of  1688  were  accustomed  to  look  for  the 
safeguard  of  their  liberties,  their  property,  and  their 
religion,  only  from  the  energy  and  wisdom  of  Parlia- 
ment ;  whereas  the  modern  doctrine  was,  that  every 
good  was  to  be  expected  from  popular  assemblies." 

Opposition  to  the  Bills  was  useless.  Out  of  doors 
once  more  the  London  Corresponding  Society  organised 
a  huge  meeting  in  St.  Marylebone  Fields,  but  they 
might  as  well  have  addressed  their  Petition  to  the 
Sphinx  in  the  desert  of  Egypt  as  to  "  the  King's  most 
excellent  Majesty."  In  Parliament  the  Government 
had  such  a  majority  that  they  could  do  what  they 
pleased ;  and  so,  in  a  short  time,  both  Bills  duly  passed 


CHAP,  vii          SUPPRESSION  OF  THE  PLATFORM  277 

both  Houses  of  Parliament,  received  the  royal  assent, 
and  became  law.1 

The  Government,  having  delivered  these  two  tre- 
mendous blows  against  the  Platform,  contented  itself 
with  waiting  to  see  the  effects. 

They  proved  efficacious.  The  Seditious  Meetings 
Act  was  instantaneously  effective  against  meetings  out 
of  doors  as  well  as  against  public  lectures  indoors. 
Early  in  March  1796  the  London  Corresponding  Society 
tried  to  evade  the  Act  by  sending  Deputies  to  address 
meetings  of  under  fifty  persons,  but  their  deputies — John 
Binns  and  John  Gale  Jones — were  arrested  at  Birming- 
ham, and  some  little  time  after  were  tried  on  a  charge 
of  using  seditious  words.  Binns  was  acquitted,  but 
Jones  was  convicted,  and  so  that  plan  fell  through.  In 
July  1796  the  Society  ventured  on  announcing  a  public 
meeting,  and  attempted  to  hold  it,  but  the  magistrates 
and  police  promptly  interfered,  and  put  an  end  to  it, 
and  some  of  the  most  prominent  men  were  arrested.2 

"  After  this,"  says  Place,  "  the  Society  continued 
gradually  to  decline,  and  by  the  end  of  the  year  it  was 
in  a  very  low  state.  The  reformers,"  he  continues, 
"  generally  conceived  it  not  only  dangerous,  but  useless 
to  continue  to  exert  themselves  any  longer.  The 
Society  rapidly  declined ;  it  failed  to  raise  money 
enough  to  meet  its  expenses  ;  it  was  nearly  ruined  before 
it  was  finally  suppressed  by  Act  of  Parliament." 

1  One  remarkable  effect  of  the  various  public  persons  or  bodies  to  call 
Seditious  Meetings  was  not  pointed  together  public  meetings  for  the  pur- 
out  till  long  after,  namely,  that  "  either  pose  of,  or  on  the  pretext  (a  purpose 
from  inadvertence  or  yielding  in  a  and  a  pretext  which,  unaccompanied 
certain  degree  to  the  temper  or  the  with  a  direct  intention  of  petition  or 
habits  of  the  times,  it  first  admitted  a  address,  was  unheard-of  in  any  pre- 
wider  range  of  general  deliberative  vious  Act  of  Parliament)  of  deliberat- 
capacity,  to  be  exercised  by  popular  ing  upon  any  grievance  in  Church  or 
assemblies.  State. " — See  Carrington's  Inquiry,  etc. 

"An   authority  was   recognised  in  2  Place,  MSS.,  27,808,  p.  80. 


278         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

In  1796  a  general  election  once  more  gave  life 
to  the  Platform.  The  coercive  legislation  just  referred 
to  did  not  apply  to  it  at  such  times.  No  special 
question  came  before  the  electors ;  with  the  whole 
machinery  of  electoral  force  so  secure  in  the  hands  of 
the  Government,  no  great  change  could  show  itself  in 
the  results,  and  accordingly  the  general  election  left 
the  Government  and  the  Opposition  in  very  much  the 
same  relative  position  as  they  were  previous  to  it. 
Pitt,  however,  claimed  that  the  approbation  given  by 
those  who  had  been  members  of  the  last  Parliament  at 
the  commencement  and  prosecution  of  the  war  were 
powerful  recommendations  in  their  favour  at  the  last 
general  election. 

Seven  contests  took  place  in  counties  and  forty-nine 
in  boroughs.  Though  ineffective  as  regarded  any  actual 
change  in  the  distribution  of  power,  they  served  to 
give  a  keen  interest  to  this  one  function  of  political  life, 
which  every  now  and  then  brought  politics  more  closely 
home  to  at  least  a  section  of  the  people.  Elections 
then  were  too  frequently  a  saturnalia  of  bribery,  cor- 
ruption, drunkenness,  and  violence,  but  in  spite  of  all 
these  vices,  they,  and  free  speech  in  Parliament,  were 
the  life-blood  of  liberty  in  these  times.  Fox  again  con- 
tested Westminster,  and  availed  himself  of  the  occasion 
both  to  defend  himself  and  to  attack  the  Government. 

"  I  cannot  but  observe  that  Ministers  are  very  fond 
of  charging  their  opponents  with  using  inflammatory 
language.  But  if  they  reduce  the  country  to  such  a 
situation,  that  to  speak  the  truth  is  to  inflame,  the 
fault  is  in  them,  and  not  in  those  who  expose  them. 
I  do  not  wish  to  inflame  the  public  mind,  but  I  wish 
the  public  to  be  informed." 

The  elections   over,   silence   settled   down   on   the 


CHAP,  vii  YEARS  OF  TERROR  279 

Platform,  and  once  in  a  way  only  was  that  silence 
broken.  Thus,  on  the  24th  January  1798,  there  was 
a  great  public  dinner  at  the  Crown  and  Anchor  in 
celebration  of  Fox's  birthday.  At  least  2000  attended, 
speeches  were  made, and  a  toast  drank — "Our  Sovereign's 
health,  the  Majesty  of  the  people."  And  again,  in  May, 
Fox  delivered  a  strong  speech  at  the  Whig  Club,  but 
these  were  isolated  instances  of  the  use  of  the  Platform, 
serving  mostly  to  accentuate  the  silence  that  had  been 
imposed  on  the  land.  "The  years  1797-1800  were 
years  of  terror,"  wrote  Place  :  "A  disloyal  word  was 
enough  to  bring  down  punishment  on  any  man's  head." 

In  April  1798  the  Government  again  obtained  from 
Parliament  the  suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act.1 
This  time  it  was  not  the  Platform  that  was  the  cause. 

A  royal  message  was  brought  to  the  House  of 
Commons  from  the  King  stating  the  advices  he  had 
received  of  great  preparations  by  the  French  for 
invading  his  Majesty's  dominions,  and  "that  in  this 
design  the  enemy  was  encouraged  by  the  correspondence 
and  communication  of  traitorous  and  disaffected  persons 
and  Societies  of  these  kingdoms." 

In  April  1799  Pitt  again  moved  for  the  continuance 
of  the  suspension,  but  as  even  this  was  not  in  his  opinion 
sufficient  to  check  the  action  of  the  Societies,  he  also 
introduced  a  Bill  for  their  suppression.  He  said  :  "  We 

1  Sir  Erskine  May,  in  his  Constitu-  cap.   36) ;  thus  there  was  a  period  of 

tional  History,  has  fallen  into  a  rather  almost  three  years  during  which  it  was 

serious  inaccurracy  on  this  subject.    He  not  suspended.     The  suspension  again 

says  (vol.  ii.  p.  126)  that  the  suspen-  expired  early  in  1801.     A  few  months, 

sion  of  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  was  in  however,    only   passed    before   it   was 

continuous   operation  for  eight  years.  again   suspended    (18th   April    1801), 

This  is  not  so.     The  Act  was  suspended  which  suspension  lasted  till  near  the 

from23dMay  1794  to  1st  July  1795,  and  end  of  1801. 

then  the  suspension  was  allowed  to  ex-  '2  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxxiii. 

pire.     It  was  not  again  suspended  until  p.  1422. 
the  21st  of  April  1798  (see  38  Geo.  III., 


280         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

"  are  involved  in  a  contest  for  every  consideration  that  is 
most  valuable  to  us,  and  it  is  our  duty  to  make  pro- 
visions suited  to  the  case  from  time  to  time.  In  taking 
this  general  view  of  the  question,  it  is  therefore  our 
great  and  leading  object  to  prevent  the  existence  of 
those  Societies,  as  detailed  in  the  Report  of  the  Secret 
Committee,  Societies  having  but  one  common  end — the 
subversion  of  the  Constitution,  and  the  diffusion  of  the 
principles  of  anarchy." l  This  was  the  first  object  of  his 
proposed  measure ;  the  second  was  "  to  prevent  the 
existence  of  other  Societies  which  are  evidently  calcu- 
lated to  corrupt  the  morals  and  vitiate  the  understanding 
of  the  community.  I  mean  debating  Societies,  in  which 
questions  are  agitated  little  suited  to  the  capacity  of  the 
audience,  and  which  operate  to  loosen  the  foundations 
of  morality,  religion,  and  social  happiness.  In  a  former 
session  measures  were  adopted  to  prevent  the  delivery 
of  political  lectures,  but  attempts  have  been  made  to 
elude  them  by  delivering  historical  lectures,  which,  by 
misrepresentation  and  the  force  of  erroneous  inference, 
are  rendered  equally  dangerous.  With  this  view,  it  is 
intended  to  extend  the  proposed  provision  to  all 
Societies  where  money  is  taken  for  admission,  and  that 
none  shall  be  held  unless  licensed  by  a  magistrate,  and 
liable  to  his  inspection." 

The  suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  was 
continued,  and  an  Act  passed  by  which  the  Societies  of 
United  Englishmen,  United  Britons,  United  Scotsmen, 
United  Irishmen,  and  the  London  Corresponding  Society 
were  suppressed  by  name,  and  all  other  Societies  were 
declared  unlawful,  of  which  the  members  were  required 
to  take  any  oath  not  required  by  law.2 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xxxiv.  -  29   Geo.   III.,  cap.  79,  12th  July 

p.  985,  19th  April  1799.  1799. 


CHAP,  vii  ACT  AGAINST  CORRESPONDING  SOCIETIES         281 

But  a  more  deadly,  an  almost  finishing  blow  was 
struck  against  the  Platform  by  another  part  of  the  Act. 
Unorganised,  the  power  of  the  Platform  was  not,  could 
not  be  very  great,  but  the  association  of  persons  added 
strength  to  it,  and  the  association  of  bodies  or  societies 
rendered  it  at  once  formidable.  Pitt,  who  in  his  youth 
had  been  behind  the  scenes  of  agitation,  knew  this  well, 
and,  now  that  he  was  opposed  to  the  Platform,  turned 
his  knowledge  to  account.  He  devised  a  law  which 
practically  prevented  the  possibility  of  any  organisation. 

He  proposed  to  Parliament,  and  Parliament  humbly 
acted  on  his  proposal,  that  any  Society  which  should 
act  in  separate  or  distinct  branches  should  "  be  deemed 
and  taken  to  be  an  unlawful  combination  and  con- 
federacy "  ;  and  any  persons  maintaining  correspond- 
ence or  intercourse  with  it  should  be  deemed  guilty  of 
an  unlawful  combination  and  confederacy — the  penalty 
for  which  was  seven  years'  transportation. 

Thus  a  most  formidable  restriction  was  placed  on  the 
power  of  the  Platform,  and,  differing  from  the  other 
restrictions  which  were  temporary  or  only  for  a  limited 
time,  it  was  made  perpetual. 

Possessed  of  these  powers  the  Government  allowed 
the  Seditious  Meetings  Act  to  expire.  Early  in  1801 
the  suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus  also  expired.  A 
revival  of  the  practice  of  holding  meetings  at  once 
began,  and  the  Government  was  once  more  stirred  to 
action. 

On  the  1st  April  sealed  papers  were  presented  to 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  a  Secret  Committee  ap- 
pointed. They  reported  that  the  previous  Acts  (Habeas 
Corpus,  and  Seditious  Meetings)  having  expired,  the 
disaffected  had  been  endeavouring  to  take  advantage  of 
the  distress  occasioned  by  the  high  price  of  provisions 


282         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

for  carrying  their  wicked  design  into  effect.  "  And 
it  appears  to  be  in  agitation  suddenly  to  call  numerous 
meetings  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  at  the  same 
day  and  hour,  to  an  extent  which,  if  not  prevented, 
must  materially  endanger  the  public  peace." l 

The  Committee  recommended  the  renewal  of  the 
suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  and  of  the  Act  to 
prevent  Seditious  Meetings,  "  which,  while  they  re- 
mained in  force,  were  attended  with  the  happiest  effects 
in  the  preserving  of  the  public  tranquillity." 

This  was  accordingly  done,  done  at  such  speed,  that 
the  Act  suspending  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  wras  passed 
then  and  there  in  one  sitting,  and  the  Seditious 
Meetings  Act  within  a  week.2  The  former  was  sus- 
pended till  six  weeks  after  the  end  of  the  next  session 
of  Parliament ;  the  latter  was  to  be  in  force  for  the 
same  period. 

Thus  was  legislation  against  the  Platform  complete. 
The  Seditious  Meetings  Act,  the  Corresponding  Societies 
Act  of  1799,  and  the  Suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus 
Act  were  all  in  force  simultaneously,  and  the  Platform 
at  last  effectually  silenced. 

Here,  then,  may  be  considered  as  ending  the  first 
period  in  the  history  of  the  Platform.  The  germs  long- 
lying  deep  in  English  character,  institutions,  and  free- 
dom of  mind,  had  fertilised  into  life.  The  Platform 
had  come  into  being  ;  it  had  given  evidence  of  its 

1  Parliamentary  Delates,  1S01,  vol.  1801),  after  a  Preamble  mentioning  the 
xxxv.  p.  1275.  Act  of  1795,  said  :  "  Be  it  enacted,  etc., 

2  This  is  a  most  curious  case  of  legis-  that  the  said  Act,  and  all  the  provi- 
lation,   namely,   reviving   an    expired  sions  therein  contained  shall  from  and 
Act  by  one  section,  instead  of  re-enact-  after  the  passing  of  this  Act  be  revived, 
ing  the  whole  measure.     The  Seditious  and  the  same  is   hereby  revived   and 
Meetings  Act  of  1795  was  a  long  one,  shall  continue  in  full  force  and  effect 
consisting  of  23  sections,  some  of  them  until  six  weeks   after  the  commence- 
of  considerable  length.     The  reviving  ment  of  the   next   session   of  Parlia- 
Act  (41  Geo.  III.,  cap.  40,  30th  April  ment." 


CHAP,  vii  THE  PLATFORM  SUPPRESSED  283 

existence  ;  it  had  reared  its  head ;  it  had  given  occa- 
sional proof  of  power.  The  more  farseeing  members  of 
the  Government  had  perceived  the  tremendous  power  in 
the  State  which  free  speech  at  public  meetings  might 
become,  and  with  the  excuse  afforded  by  the  extreme 
and  injudicious  action  of  some  of  the  members  of  the 
Societies,  and  of  violent  reckless  men,  it  had  been  struck 
down  by  the  Government  of  the  day,  wounded  sorely, 
almost  to  the  death. 

It  is  a  convenient  place,  therefore,  for  very  briefly 
reviewing  its  history  so  far. 

Its  growing  power — that  is,  the  reflection  which  first 
strikes  one. 

Step  by  step  it  had  been  gaining  strength,  and  each 
step  had  disclosed  some  new,  some  different,  phase. 

The  first  effort  of  a  few  counties,  irritated  by  the 
imposition  of  an  unpopular  tax,  was  but  a  small  affair 
either  in  power  or  significance  when  compared  with 
the  later  demonstrations. 

A  greater,  its  first  great  struggle,  was,  when  the 
popular  rights  were  "  betrayed  "  by  the  House  of  Com- 
mons in  the  case  of  the  Middlesex  election.  That  was 
the  first  occasion  when  any  considerable  number  of  the 
people  used  the  Platform  for  the  expression  of  their 
feelings.  That  some  of  them  were  incited  to  it  by  the 
Parliamentary  leaders  of  the  popular  party  does  not 
detract  from  the  importance  of  the  demonstration  of 
popular  feeling.  That  it  took  place,  no  matter  by 
whom  led,  is  the  salient  fact  for  us.  That  it  triumphed 
too — triumphed  over  the  united  forces  of  King,  Lords, 
and  Commons — is  also  most  notable,  for  the  victory 
was  a  direct  encouragement  to  further  action  when 
occasion  or  provocation  arose. 

After   a   decade    that   occasion  did  arise,   and   the 


284         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

Platform  was  again  had  recourse  to — only  this  time  on 
a  more  extended  scale  than  ever  before — to  convey  to 
the  Government  of  the  day  the  expression  of  dissatis- 
faction with  the  manner  in  which  the  Government  of 
the  country  was  conducted,  and  to  demand  relief  by 
economy  in  the  administration. 

This  occasion  was  marked  by  fresh  signs  of  power, 
for  now,  in  distinct  contrast  to  the  previous  occasion, 
large  numbers  of  the  wealthier  and  more  important 
classes — more  particularly  the  country  gentlemen — re- 
gardless of  political  feelings,  participated  in  the  move- 
ment, and  resorted  to  the  Platform  themselves.  Even 
more  important,  however,  than  this  was  the  grafting  a 
system  of  organisation  on  the  Platform  by  associating 
the  different  groups  of  the  population  who  were  having 
recourse  to  it  into  one  combined  movement,  and  so 
securing  unity  of  voice  and  unity  of  action.  Here,  too, 
its  action  was  rewarded  with  considerable  success. 

When  next  the  Platform  appeared — namely,  at  the 
end  of  another  decade  or  so — it  presented  itself  in  a 
new  aspect,  confined  exclusively  to  a  class  who  hitherto 
were  strangers  to  it,  and  displaying  the  first  political 
stirrings  of  the  civic  industrial  population.  Almost 
leaderless  (for,  as  we  have  seen,  those  who  had  for- 
merly led  the  people,  awestruck  by  the  wide-spreading 
anarchy  of  the  French  Kevolution,  shrank  doubtingly 
back),  ignorant,  ill-educated,  and  poor,  scarce  knowing 
what  object  to  strive  for,  the  easy  prey  of  designing  and 
reckless  men,  it  is  not  wonderful  that  they  laid  them- 
selves open  to  the  charges  of  high  treason,  or  any  minor 
atrocity  for  which  their  opponents  lay  in  wait  for  them. 
This  time  their  only  success  with  the  Platform  was  the 
success  of  notoriety.  Not  profitable  to  them — rather 
the  reverse — but  profitable  to  posterity,  and  to  think- 


CHAP,  vii  REVIEW  OF  ITS  PROGRESS  285 

ing  men  of  that  time  portentous  enough.  That  Pitt 
grasped  the  meaning  of  it  is,  I  think,  clear,  for  not 
otherwise  can  we  account  for  the  unnecessary  sternness 
and  completeness  of  the  measures  of  repression  he  ob- 
tained from  Parliament.  Far  milder  measures  would 
have  been  adequate  to  meet  the  symptoms  displayed. 
The  ordinary  law  of  the  time  would  appear  to  have 
been  quite  sufficient.  But  he,  with  the  foresight  of 
statecraft,  saw  what  the  Platform  meant,  what  it  really 
was,  and  with  his  views  on  Government,  endeavoured 
to  stamp  it  out. 

That,  however,  was  hopeless.  As  well  might  he 
have  expected  to  dam  a  great  river  in  its  course.  We 
have  seen  the  springs,  we  have  traced  the  first  courses, 
and  watched  the  growing  strength  of  those  streams, 
which,  together  were  to  make  the  great  river  of  public 
opinion,  of  which  the  Platform  was  to  be  the  great 
exponent.  There  was  no  staying  them,  except  for  the 
brief  period  whilst  the  waters  were  gathering  force  to 
burst  the  dam.  It  may  seem  a  fatalistic  view  to  take, 
but  the  progress  of  the  Platform,  from  the  small  gather- 
ings to  remonstrate  against  the  tax  on  cider,  down  to 
the  great  gatherings  of  modern  times,  when  the  voice  of 
the  speaker  may  reach  the  furthermost  bounds  of  the 
earth,  was  inevitable,  and  not  to  be  stayed,  at  least  not 
for  long.  It  is  true,  as  Lord  Stanhope  says  in  his  Life 
of  Pitt,  that  "  There  are  times  when  new  unparalleled 
dangers  are  only  to  be  met  by  rigorous  and  extraor- 
dinary stretches  of  power.  There  are  times  when  the 
State  can  be  saved  by  no  other  means  ;  "  and  he  declares 
that  this  time  was  one  of  them.  "  The  great  majority 
of  the  people  of  England  in  1793  and  1794,"  he  says, 
"  felt  that  everything  that  they  most  prized  was  im- 
perilled by  the  French  Revolutionary  school,  and  far 


286         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

"  from  deprecating  they  demanded  a  course  of  rigorous 
repression." 

But  when  we  consider  how  deeply  interested  King, 
Lords,  and  Commons,  were  in  maintaining  the  existing 
order  of  things,  so  profitable  to  them,  it  is  impossible 
not  to  feel,  on  calm  and  impartial  consideration  of  the 
subject,  that  their  views  were  strongly  biassed  and 
warped  by  self-interest,  and  that  it  was  their  alarm  for 
their  own  privileges  and  advantages  which  mainly 
determined  them  in  their  decision  to  stifle  the  voice  of 
the  rising  masses,  and  to  stamp  out  the  means  of  ex- 
pressing it. 

Wisely,  indeed,  was  it  remarked  by  a  contemporary 
writer:  "The  majority  of  the  discontented  seem  to  be 
composed  of  the  lower  classes  of  the  people.  If  they 
have,  therefore,  whereof  to  complain,  it  would  be  wise 
to  examine  into  the  nature  of  the  complaint,  and  not  to 
reject  it  rudely  without  any  inquiry,  merely  because 
persons  of  this  description  may,  from  want  of  under- 
standing, and  passions  little  under  control  of  reason,  be 
led  to  commit  enormities  of  the  most  serious  nature. 
Wherever  discontent  becomes  general  in  a  nation,  there 
must  be  something  wrong  in  the  administration  of 
public  affairs.  I  will  not  say  something  misconceived 
or  misrepresented,  for  that  which  is  false  cannot  prevail 
long  against  that  which  is  true,  but  something  radically 
and  substantially  wrong." l 

Such  a  policy  would,  however,  scarcely  have  been  in 
keeping  with  the  temper  of  the  times  or  of  the  govern- 
ing classes  at  that  period.  What  recent  history  had 
taught  them — and  they  still  felt  the  sore  smart  of  the 
lesson — was  the  power  and  success  of  the  Platform,  and 
of  public  discussion,  even  when  it  was  resorted  to  only 

1  The  History  of  the  Two  Acts,  p.  xlvi. 


CHAP,  vii  REVIEW  OF  ITS  PROGRESS  287 

by  some  of  their  own  class,  and  by  the  electors.  These 
were  experiences  that  would  not  have  induced  the 
Government  or  its  dependents  to  regard  the  Platform 
with  much  favour,  though  they  were  not  sufficient  to 
justify  legislative  action  to  check  them.  The  Plat- 
form had,  however,  they  declared,  evinced  a  sufficiently 
dangerous  aspect  to  call  for  its  suppression  when  it  was 
adopted  by  a  lower  strata  of  society,  and  when  agitators 
of  the  extreme  type,  caught  by  the  glamour  of  French 
Revolutionary  principles,  sought  to  turn  its  power  to 
account  for  what  the  Government  considered  evil  pur- 
poses. In  the  highly  excited  state  of  the  public  mind 
consequent  upon  the  horrors  of  the  French  Revolution, 
the  Government,  still  almost  despotic,  and  with  quite 
enough  on  their  hands  without  agitation  at  home  to 
cripple  them,  determined  to  suppress  it.  They  struck, 
and  struck  hard,  a  deathblow  as  they  thought,  and  as 
their  supporters  hoped. 

But  in  striking  down  the  Platform  the  Government 
struck  down  one  of  the  best  means  of  educating  the 
people  into  whose  hands  ultimately  was  to  come  the 
Government  of  the  country.  Already  it  had  done  much 
towards  their  enlightenment  and  instruction.  That  had 
been  one  of  its  most  beneficial  consequences.  The 
agitation  about  the  Middlesex  Election,  the  Economy 
Agitation,  and  the  recurring  General  Elections,  were 
rapidly  educating  the  people  in  political  knowledge, 
awakening  them  to  an  ever-growing  sense  of  their  own 
importance  in  the  State  ;  the  habit  of  publicly  discussing 
the  political  events  of  the  day  was  ever  seizing  faster 
hold  on  increasing  numbers,  and  the  furious  controversy 
that  raged  throughout  the  country  about  the  "Two  Acts" 
had  opened  out  a  whole  new  field  of  information  and 
thought ;  had  brought  into  prominence  the  deeper  mean- 


288         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  i 

ing  of  the  great  principles  of  liberty  and  justice,  so  long 
obscured  by  the  growth  of  the  influence  of  the  Crown ;  and 
had  given  the  people  generally  a  taste  for,  and  an  impetus 
towards,  political  life  which,  in  the  end,  would  produce 
vast  changes  in  the  existing  form  of  the  Constitution. 

Nor,  in  connection  with  this  aspect  of  the  subject, 
must  I  refrain  from  mentioning  some  good  results  from 
the  London  Corresponding  Society,  which  has  been  so 
sternly  censured  by  the  Committee  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  so  held  up  to  lasting  execration  that  few 
can  believe  anything  good  about  it.  Francis  Place  has 
described  them  in  the  following  passage  :  "  The  moral 
effects  of  the  Society  were  very  great  indeed.  It  induced 
men  to  read  books  instead  of  spending  their  time  at 
public-houses.  It  taught  them  to  think,  to  respect 
themselves,  and  to  desire  to  educate  their  children.  It 
elevated  them  in  their  own  opinions.  It  taught  them  the 
great  moral  lesson  to 'bear  and  forbear,'  and  the  discussion, 
in  the  divisions,  and  in  the  Sunday  afternoon  reading, 
and  debating  associations  held  in  their  own  rooms, 
opened  to  them  views  to  which  they  had  been  blind. 
They  were  compelled  by  these  discussions  to  find  reasons 
for  their  opinions,  and  to  tolerate  the  opinions  of  others  ; 
in  fact,  it  gave  a  new  stimulus  to  a  large  mass  of  men 
who  had  hitherto  been  but  too  justly  considered  as 
incapable  of  any  but  the  very  grossest  pursuits  and 
sensual  enjoyments.  It  elevated  them  in  society."1 

Within  the  period  so  far  treated  of,  there  is  one  other 
point  of  considerable  interest  in  connection  with  the 
history  of  the  Platform,  which  must  be  adverted  to  before 
we  proceed,  namely,  how  far  did  the  statesmen  of  the 
last  century  use  the  Platform  as  a  means  of  maintaining 
or  extending  their  power  ? 

1  Place,  MSS.,  27,808,  p.  59. 


CHAP,  vii     THE  USE  OF  PLATFORM  BY  MINISTERS  289 

To  Burke  has  already  been  assigned  the  honour  of 
being  the  first  statesman  and  orator  who  used  the  Plat- 
form at  election  time  as  a  real  instrument  of  political 
power.  The  occasions  on  which  he  so  used  it  were  few, 
but  his  speeches  at  Bristol  in  1774  and  1780  recognised 
clearly  the  claims  of  constituents  to  the  fullest  explana- 
tion of  the  conduct  of  their  representative,  and  his  full 
accountability  to  them.  That  was  a  most  important 
matter  to  have  put  so  prominently  on  record.  Though 
taking  part  in  the  Economy  Agitation  he  does  not 
appear  to  have  actually  spoken  from  the  Platform  in 
its  support,  but  in  the  crisis  of  the  struggle  between 
Pitt  and  the  Coalition  he  had  recourse  to  the  Platform 
at  Aylesbury  in  1784.  After  that,  however,  his  voice 
from  the  Platform  was  silent. 

For  the  honour  of  being  the  first  ex-Minister  who 
used  the  Platform,  only  two  men  come  into  competition 
—Lord  Shelburne  and  Charles  Fox,  both  of  whom  we 
may  remember  spoke  at  the  Wiltshire  meeting  in 
January  1780.  In  one  respect  Lord  Shelburne  must 
be  given  precedence  as  he  had  been  a  Cabinet  Minister 
when  he  spoke,  and  therefore  must,  I  think,  be  regarded 
as  the  first  ex-Cabinet  Minister  who  ever  used  the 
Platform ;  but  in  every  other  respect  the  honour  must 
be  awarded  to  Fox.  Lord  Shelburne's  appearance  on 
the  Platform  was,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  only  an 
isolated  event ;  Fox  habitually  resorted  to  it  not 
merely  on  the  occasion  of  elections,  but  at  other 
times  also,  and  used  it  as  a  means  of  conveying 
instruction  to  the  people,  as  a  defence  of  his  own 
policy,  or  as  a  basis  for  attack  on  his  opponents.  He 
was  also  the  first  Cabinet  Minister  who  used  it  at  the 
time  of  an  election. 

Pre-eminently  does  he  stand  out  as  the  first  English 


290         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

statesman  of  ministerial  rank  who  appreciated  the  power 
of  the  Platform,  and  who  systematically  used  it.  Whether 
or  not  it  was  that  he  liked  it  for  the  qualities  which 
render  it  so  much  more  fascinating  to  some  men  than 
the  House  of  Commons,  its  freedom,  its  enthusiasm,  its 
applause,  certain  it  is  that  he  was  constantly  addressing 
public  meetings,  so  constantly,  indeed,  as  to  earn 'for 
himself  the  name  of  "  the  man  of  the  people." 

His  peculiar  position  in  measure  accounted  for  this. 
For  the  greater  part  of  his  political  life  he  represented 
Westminster,  then  the  leading  constituency  of  Great 
Britain — London  city  alone  excepted — and  that  con- 
stituency was  at  his  very  door.  He  lived  amongst  his 
constituents,  worked  under  their  eyes,  took  them  into 
all  his  confidences,  and  time  after  time  frankly  com- 
municated with  them  from  the  Platform  in  Westminster 
Hall  his  views,  his  difficulties,  and  his  plans. 

When  the  right  of  public  discussion  and  free  speech 
fell  on  evil  days,  and  many  men  had  either  gone  over  to 
the  other  side,  or  been  awed  into  quiescence,  Fox,  shel- 
tered by  his  position  as  member  of  Parliament,  still 
stood  forward  as  the  undaunted,  indomitable  champion 
of  popular  rights. 

Once,  when  the  debates  on  the  so-called  "  Gagging 
Bills"  were  in  progress,  Dundas  inveighed  bitterly 
against  him  for  his  appeals  to  the  people. 

"  The  Right  Honourable  gentleman,  from  his  earliest 
knowledge  of  him,  had  been  a  friend  to  the  system  of 
popular  meetings,  but  he  doubted  much  whether  he  had 
imbibed  any  good  principle  from  that  system,  or  estab- 
lished any  good  principle  by  it.  He  displayed  the  most 
extraordinary  willingness  to  resort  to  them,  so  that  it 
frequently  happened  that  he  was — without  the  door  of 
the  House  —  attacking  Ministers  with  invective  and 


CHAP,  vii          CHARLES  FOX  AND  THE  PLATFORM  291 

asperity  one-half  of  the  day,  where  they  had  no  means 
of  defending  themselves,  and  during  the  other  half  com- 
bating them  within  these  walls  with  the  most  deter- 
mined inveteracy.  At  one  time,  in  order  to  excite  the 
indignation  of  the  public  against  Ministers  for  their 
prosecution  of  the  American  War,  he  displayed  his 
oratorical  talents  on  a  stage  erected  for  that  purpose 
in  Westminster  Hall."  l 

Fox,  so  far  from  feeling  reproved,  gloried  in  this, 
and  said,  "  That  it  was  the  duty  of  every  man,  and  par- 
ticularly of  every  member  of  Parliament,  when  the  con- 
duct of  the  Executive  Government  was  called  in  ques- 
tion, to  represent  the  characters  and  conduct  of  members 
in  their  true  colours."  And  he  plainly  reminded  the 
House  of  Mr.  Pitt's  eloquent  speeches,  in  which  he  had 
formerly  described  "public  harangues  to  the  people"  as 
the  most  agreeable  and  most  useful  duty  which  repre- 
sentatives in  Parliament  could  discharge  to  their  con- 
stituents.2 

Later  again  we  find  him  drawing  upon  himself  the 
wrath  of  the  King  by  his  public  speaking.  At  a  dinner 
at  the  Whig  Club  on  1st  of  May  1798,  he  said,  "A 
malign  influence  unfortunately  prevails  over  the  conduct 
of  the  national  defence  ;  but  the  inference  is  not  that  we 
should  be  slack,  or  remiss,  or  inactive,  in  resisting  the 
enemy.  The  true  inference  is,  that  the  Friends  of 
Liberty  should,  with  the  spirit  and  zeal  that  belong  to 
their  manly  character,  exert  themselves  in  averting  a 
foreign  yoke  ;  never  forgetting  that  in  happier  and  more 
favourable  times  it  will  be  equally  their  duty  to  use 
every  effort  to  shake  off  the  yoke  of  our  English 
tyrants." 

1  Parliamentary  History,  1795,  vol.  -  I   have   been  unable  to  trace  the 

xxxii.  p.  341.  speech  to  which  Fox  referred. 


2Q2         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

A  few  days  after,  the  King  thought  proper  to  mark 
his  disapprobation  of  Fox's  conduct  by  causing  his  name 
to  be  erased  from  the  list  of  Privy  Councillors. 

Later,  in  the  same  year,  he  excited  Pitt's  wrath  by 
a  public  speech.  Writing  to  Addington  on  the  16th 
October  1798,  Pitt  said,  "Fox's  speech  at  his  anniver- 
sary. Have  you  seen  it  yet  ?  It  is  so  full  of  insult 
and  defiance  to  the  House  of  Commons  that,  with  all 
possible  desire  to  leave  him  to  the  insignificance  to 
which  he  has  doomed  himself,  I  doubt  whether  it  will 
be  possible  not  to  take  some  Parliamentary  notice  of  it."  1 

Fired  by  Fox's  example,  some  other  prominent  men 
of  what  remained  of  the  Liberal  party  also  occasionally 
used  the  Platform  ;  but  the  instances  where  it  was  so 
used  were  comparatively  rare,  and  were  confined  mainly 
to  the  populous  constituencies  of  London  and  its  neigh- 
bourhood. 

Fox's  great  rival  and  contemporary,  William  Pitt, 
affords  interesting  negative  evidence  of  the  position  of 
the  Platform. 

Neither  in  the  memoirs  of  his  life,  by  Bishop  Tom- 
line,  nor  in  that  by  Gifford,  is  there  any  reference  what- 
ever to  his  having  made  any  speech  whatever  outside 
Parliament.  There  is  evidence  elsewhere  that  we  should 
not  look  for  any  such  speeches,  for  Sheridan  once  accused 
him  of  not  using  the  Platform.  "  If  the  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer  was  not  so  stiffnecked  and  lofty,  if  he 
condescended  to  mix  in  public  meetings,  he  would  not 
be  apt  to  be  led  into  those  errors  which  were  practised 
on  his  credulity." 

Moreover,  on  one  of  those  occasions  when  we  natur- 
ally might  have  expected  a  speech  from  him — namely,  a 
great  dinner  given  on  the  anniversary  of  his  birthday 

1  See  Life  of  Lord  Sidmauth,  vol.  i.  p.  213. 


CHAP,  vii  PITT  AND  THE  PLATFORM  293 

on  the  28th  May  1802 — he  was  not  present  to  make  one. 
In  1780  he  had  been  returned  to  Parliament  without 
even  visiting  his  constituency,  and  in  1784  he  had  con- 
tested the  University  of  Cambridge,  where  no  speech 
was  allowed.  It  would,  indeed,  appear  that  throughout 
his  whole  career,  filling  for  many  years  a  position  which 
would  have  made  Europe  hang  upon  his  words,  had  he 
chosen  to  utter  any,  he  was  silent,  except  when  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  There  he  recognised  often  enough 
the  right  of  the  country  to  be  taken  into  his  confidence  ; 
thence  he  often  addressed  it.  But  the  Platform,  as  we 
now  understand  it,  was  contemptuously  ignored  by  him, 
or,  where  recognised,  was  recognised  as  a  dangerous 
innovation,  requiring  such  summary  treatment  as  that 
dealt  out  to  it  in  the  Habeas  Corpus  Suspension  Act,  in 
the  Seditious  Meetings  Act  of  1795,  and  the  supple- 
mentary measures. 

The  only  two  exceptions  which  I  have  found  are  the 
following  :  —  The  first  on  Saturday,  28th  February 
1784,  when  he  was  presented  with  the  Freedom  of 
the  city  of  London  at  the  Grocers'  Hall,  "where  an 
elegant  entertainment"  was  provided  in  compliment 
to  him.1 

Mr.  Wilkes  addressed  him  in  a  short  speech. 

Pitt's  answer  was  :  "I  beg  to  return  you  my  best 
thanks  for  your  very  obliging  expressions.  Nothing 
can  be  more  encouraging  to  me  in  the  discharge  of  my 
public  duty  than  the  countenance  of  those  whom,  from 
this  day,  I  may  have  the  honour  of  calling  my  fellow- 
citizens." 

That,  and  no  more.  And  the  second  at  a  very  long 
interval,  on  the  9th  of  November  1805,  that  pathetic 
occasion  described  by  Lord  Stanhope,  Pitt's  last  speech 

1  See  The  Morning  Chronicle,  1st  and  2d  March,  1784. 


294         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS      PART  i 

in  public,  at  the  Lord  Mayor's  banquet  at  the  Guildhall, 
in  London. 

Pitt  went  to  it  as  Prime  Minister.  The  Lord  Mayor 
proposed  his  health  as  the  "  Saviour  of  Europe."  Then 
Pitt  rose  and  spoke  as  follows :  "I  return  you  many 
thanks  for  the  honour  you  have  done  me,  but  Europe  is 
not  to  be  saved  by  any  single  man.  England  has  saved 
herself  by  her  exertions,  and  will,  I  trust,  save  Europe 
by  her  example."  With  only  these  two  sentences  the 
Minister  sat  down.  .  .  .  "They  were  the  last  wrords 
that  Pitt  ever  spoke  in  public." 


PAET  II 


THE  PLATFOEM— FROM  ITS  FIRST  SUPPRESSION 

TO 

ITS  EMANCIPATION" 

1802-1825 


CHAPTER   VIII 

THE  REVIVAL  OF  THE  PLATFORM 

IT  is  somewhat  hard  to  realise  in  the  present  day,  when 
the  Platform  is  so  great  a  power  in  the  land,  how 
completely  non-existent  it  was  as  a  factor  in  political 
life,  as  the  nineteenth  century  dawned  upon  the  country. 
Events  of  world- wide  importance  were  occurring  abroad ; 
mighty  movements  were  beginning  at  home ;  but  the 
Government  had  closed  the  avenues  to  discussion,  and 
the  people  were  compelled  to  silence.  Matter  enough 
had  they  for  thought ;  problems  enough  to  perplex 
them ;  grievances  and  sufferings  enough  to  make  them 
cry  out ;  but  the  articulate  voice  came  not,  was  not 
permitted  to  come ;  and  though  the  Press,  trammelled 
and  terrorised,  acted  to  some  extent  as  a  vehicle  for  the 
expression  of  the  thoughts  of  the  people,  the  public 
voice,  as  spoken  from  the  Platform,  was  dumb. 

Meetings  had  ceased,  speeches  had  ceased,  petitions 
to  Parliament  even  had  fallen  into  abeyance.  The  last 
spark  of  public  discussion  or  criticism  died  out  with  the 
suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  in  1801  and  its 
attendant  legislation. 

Though  public  liberty  in  England  was  at  this  low 
ebb  it  was  not  quite  so  low  as  in  Scotland.  That 
country  was  in  far  deeper  political  silence  and  darkness. 


298         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

In  later  years  she  was  to  take  her  place  alongside 
England  in  the  struggle  for  political  progress  and 
enlightenment ;  but  at  this  period  her  condition  afforded 
an  example  of  the  depths  which  political  torpor  and 
submission  could  reach  in  a  country  nominally  enjoying 
the  blessings  of  freedom. 

An  admirable  description  of  the  political  state  of 
Scotland  at  this  period  has  been  given  by  Lord  Cock- 
burn.1 

"  The  Tory  party,"  he  says,  "  engrossed  almost  the 
whole  wealth  and  rank  and  public  office  of  the  country, 
and  at  least  three -fourths  of  the  population.  .  .  . 
Jacobinism  was  a  term  denoting  everything  alarm- 
ing and  hateful,  and  every  political  objector  was  a 
Jacobin.  .  .  . 

"  The  chief  object  at  which  our  discontented  aimed 
was  Parliamentary  reform.  But  this  and  other  home- 
bred ends  were  hid  by  a  cloud  of  foreign  follies,  which 
the  Tories  exhibited  as  demonstrations  that  the  correc- 
tion of  domestic  abuses  was  a  pretence,  and  Jacobinism 
the  truth.  On  this  foundation  they  represented  the 
whole  lower  orders  as  hostile  to  our  institutions.  .  .  . 

"  The  real  Whigs  were  extremely  few.  Self-interest 
had  converted  some,  and  terror  more.  .  .  .  We  had  no 
free  political  institutions  whatever.  .  .  .  There  was  no 
free,  and  consequently  no  discussing  Press.  .  .  . 

"  Nor  was  the  absence  of  a  free  public  Press  compen- 
sated by  any  freedom  of  public  speech.  Public  political 
meetings  could  not  arise,  for  the  elements  did  not  exist. 
I  doubt  if  there  was  one  during  the  twenty-five  years 
that  succeeded  1795.  Nothing  was  viewed  with  such 
horror  as  any  political  congregation  not  friendly  to 
existing  power.  No  one  could  have  taken  a  part 

1  Memorials  of  His  Time,  by  Henry  Cockburn.     Edinburgh,  1856. 


CHAP,  vni       THE  POLITICAL  STATE  OF  SCOTLAND  299 

in  the  business  without  making  up  his  mind  to  be  a 
doomed  man.  No  prudence  could  protect  against  the 
falsehood  or  inaccuracy  of  spies ;  and  a  first  conviction 
of  sedition  by  a  Judge-picked  jury  was  followed  by 
fourteen  years'  transportation.  As  a  body  to  be  referred 
to,  no  public  existed.  Opinion  was  only  recognised 
when  expressed  through  what  were  acknowledged  to  be 
its  legitimate  organs,  which  meant  its  formal  or  official 
outlets.  Public  bodies,  therefore,  might  each  speak  for 
itself;  but  the  general  community  as  such  had  no 
admitted  claim  to  be  consulted  or  cared  for.  The 
result,  in  a  nation  devoid  of  popular  political  rights, 
was  that  people  were  dumb,  or  if  they  spoke  out,  were 
deemed  audacious." 

Lord  Cockburn  looked  on  the  trials  of  Muir  and 
Palmer,  Gerrald,  Skirving,  and  Margarot,  and  the 
manner  in  which  they  were  conducted,  as  the  turning- 
point  in  modern  Scotch  history.  He  said  :  "I  fear  that 
no  impartial  censor  can  avoid  detecting  throughout  the 
whole  course  of  the  trials,  not  mere  casual  indications 
of  bias,  but  absolute  straining  for  convictions.  .  .  . 

"  If,  instead  of  a  Supreme  Court  of  Justice,  sitting 
for  the  trial  of  guilt  or  of  innocence,  it  had  been  an 
ancient  Commission  appointed  by  the  Crown  to  procure 
convictions,  little  of  its  judicial  manner  would  have 
required  to  be  changed.  When  the  verdicts  were 
returned,  the  Court  had  to  exercise  a  discretionary 
power  in  fixing  upon  the  sentence ;  which  discretion 
ranged  from  one  hour's  imprisonment  to  transportation 
for  life.  Assuming  transportation  to  be  lawful,  it  was 
conceded  not  to  be  necessary ;  and  it  was  not  then, 
nor  at  any  time,  used  in  England  as  a  punishment  of 
sedition.  At  that  time  it  implied  a  frightful  voyage  of 
many  months,  great  wretchedness  in  the  new  colony, 


300         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"  an  almost  complete  extinction  of  all  communication 
with  home,  and  such  difficulty  in  returning,  that  a  man 
transported  was  considered  as  a  man  never  to  be  seen 
again.  Nevertheless,  transportation  for  a  first  offence 
was  the  doom  of  every  one  of  these  prisoners. 

"  All  this  was  approved  of  no  doubt,  not  only  by  the 
Tories,  but  by  Parliament,  advised  by  the  Lord  Chan- 
cellor. But  this  never  satisfied  judicious  men,  and  it 
can  neither  silence  nor  pervert  history.  .  .  . 

"  These  trials,  sunk  deep  not  merely  into  the  popular 
mind,  but  into  the  minds  of  all  men  who  thought.  It 
was  by  these  proceedings,  more  than  by  any  other 
wrong,  that  the  spirit  of  discontent  justified  itself 
throughout  the  rest  of  that  age.  It  was  to  them  that 
peaceful  reformers  appealed,  for  the  practical  answer  to 
those  who  pretended  to  uphold  our  whole  Scotch  system 
as  needing  no  change.  .  .  .  This  was  the  first  time  that 
Scotland  had  ever  been  agitated  by  discussions  upon 
general  principles  of  liberty.  Neither  the  Union,  nor 
the  two  Rebellions,  nor  even  the  Revolution,  had  any  of 
this  matter  in  them.  The  course  of  this,  our  first  con- 
flict of  constitutional  opinion,  has  been  very  distinctly 
marked.  With  no  improvement  in  their  public  educa- 
tion, habits,  or  institutions  ;  with  all  power  in  the  hands 
of  those  with  whom  change  was  in  itself  an  ultimate  evil, 
and  with  reason  superseded  by  dread  of  revolution,  the 
cause  of  the  people  was  put  down,  and  could  not  possibly 
have  been  then  raised  up.  The  only  hope  was  in  the 
decline  of  the  circumstances  that  had  sunk  it.  What 
had  to  be  waited  for  was — the  increase  of  numbers  and  of 
wealth,  the  waning  of  the  Revolutionary  horror,  the 
dying  out  of  the  hard  old  aristocracy,  the  advance  of  a 
new  generation,  and  the  rise  of  new  guides." 

The  picture  is  a  graphic  one,  and  Lord  Cockburn 


CHAP,  vni          THE  GENERAL  ELECTION  OF  1802  301 

was  familiar  with  the  subject  he  was  writing  about. 
The  things  to  be  waited  for  were  slowly  coming,  not 
alone  in  Scotland,  but  in  England  also  ;  but  many  a 
weary  step  had  to  be  taken,  many  a  sacrifice  made,  before 
the  people  were  to  secure  the  goal  of  their  desires — their 
own  government ;  and  the  brunt  of  the  struggle  had  to 
be  borne  almost  alone  by  England,  until  the  Parlia- 
mentary Keform  Act  of  1832  gave  Scotland  free 
movement. 

The  existence  of  the  Platform  would  have  been 
almost  completely  forgotten  at  this  time  if  it  had  not 
been  for  the  occurrence  of  a  general  election.  That 
event  woke  it  in  its  electoral  phase  once  more  into  life. 

"  The  people  of  England,"  wrote  Jean  Jacques 
Rousseau  in  Le  Contrat  Social,  "  deceive  themselves, 
when  they  fancy  they  are  free  ;  they  are  so,  in  fact,  only 
during  the  interval  between  a  dissolution  of  one  Parlia- 
ment and  the  election  of  another  ;  for  so  soon  as  a  new 
one  is  elected,  they  are  again  in  chains,  and  lose  all  their 
virtue  as  a  people.  And  thus,  by  the  use  they  make  of 
their  few  moments  of  liberty,  they  deserve  to  lose  it." 1 

One  of  these  "  few  moments  of  liberty,"  shortened 
down  from  forty  to  fifteen  days,  came  in  1802,  Parlia- 
ment being  dissolved  on  the  26th  of  June.  Possibly  the 
fact  that  the  voice  of  public  opinion  had  been  silenced 
made  people  keener  about  the  elections,  for  there  was 
an  evident  growth  of  political  interest  compared  with 
recent  years.  The  number  of  contests  was  larger  than 
on  any  previous  occasion,  except  1784,  and  although 
they  had  little  or  no  effect  so  far  as  party  strength  was 
concerned,  they  were  very  useful  in  reminding  the  people 
of  the  existence  of  the  Platform,  and  familiarising  them 
with  it. 

1  Book  III.  chap.  xv. 


302         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

There  were  contests  in  six  English  counties,  in  two 
Welsh  counties,  and  in  sixty-two  boroughs.1  In  Scotland 
the  democratic  interest  showed  itself  more  alive  and  active 
than  had  been  known  for  many  years  past.2  In  England 
political  feeling  wakened  up.  "The  attention  of  the 
country  is  totally  occupied  with  the  elections,"  wrote  Cob- 
bett  in  his  Political  Register  in  July  ;  "  several  of  which 
are  carried  on  with  great  warmth  " — a  fact  readily  to  be 
believed  when  we  hear3  that  "the  rioting  during  the 
election  at  Northampton  lasted  six  days,  and  one  of  the 
candidates  had  to  fly  for  his  life,"  and  that  at  Evesham 
"  the  whole  of  the  last  week  was  signalised  by  broken 
heads  and  bloody  noses."4 

According  to  Cobbett,5  who  at  this  early  period  of 
his  political  life  was  a  Conservative,  "  The  dissolution 
of  Parliament  has  already  furnished  some  of  the 
seditious  with  an  opportunity  of  venting  their  malice 
against  the  Government.  .  .  .  The  people  have  been 
told,  in  two  factious  Addresses  in  particular,  that  they 
are  not  represented  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  that 
until  it  be  reformed  it  is  in  vain  for  them  to  hope  for  any 
good  from  that  quarter." 

Fox,  who  for  nearly  twenty-two .  years  had  repre- 
sented Westminster,  again  stood  for  his  old  constituency, 
though  he  told  his  constituents  he  had  for  some  years 
utterly  despaired  of  rendering  any  useful  service  to  them. 
The  occasion  is  memorable  for  the  clear  declaration  he 
made  of  his  political  creed.  He  said  in  one  of  his 
speeches6  to  the  electors:  "My  principles  are  short; 
they  are  the  principles  of  the  Constitution  of  Great 

1  The  Register  of  Parliamentary  Con-          3  Hansard,  vol.  xxxvi.  p.  1230. 
tested    Elections,    by    H.     S.    Smith.  *  See  The  Times,  7th  July  1802. 
London,  1842.  5  Political  Register,  1802,  vol.  i.  p. 

2  Letter  from  Dundas  to  Addington,  791. 

see  Life  of  Lord  Sidmouth,  vol.  ii.  p.  72.          6  See  The  Times,  7th  July  1802. 


CHAP,  vin        THE  GENERAL  ELECTION  OF  1802  303 

Britain,  as  they  have  always  been  understood  by  the 
most  enlightened  patriots  of  this  country.  I  can  state 
them  in  two  sentences.  They  are  these — that  in  theory 
the  Sovereignty  is  in  the  people,  and  that  in  practice  all 
the  constituted  authorities  ought  to  keep  in  mind  the 
Sovereign  under  whom  they  hold  their  power." 

Negatively  also  from  this  general  election  we  learn 
something  of  interest.  Addington,  the  Prime  Minister,1 
"  visited  his  constituents  at  Devizes  "  and  was  re-elected, 
but  no  papers  (at  least  none  that  I  have  been  able  to 
find)  make  any  mention  of  his  making  a  speech. 

Evidently,  therefore,  Prime  Ministers  had  not  yet 
come  to  think  the  Platform  of  any  use  or  consequence 
to  them.  Some  less  exalted  members  of  Parliament 
however  did  think  the  Platform  of  use  for  election 
purposes,  or  to  put  it  more  accurately,  some  of  the 
popular  constituencies  expected  the  candidates  to 
address  them,  and  the  candidates  had  to  fall  in  with 
the  expectations  of  the  electors.  Among  the  few 
populous  constituencies  of  the  pre-reform  era  was  York- 
shire, and  here  Wilberforce  was  candidate  again,  and 
spoke.  His  speeches  are  an  interesting  example  of  the 
best  class  of  election  Platform  oratory  at  this  period. 
He  was  returned  without  a  contest,  but  he  spoke  both 
on  being  proposed,  and  on  being  elected.  The  election 
was  held  at  York,  and  there  was  a  large  assembly  of 
freeholders.  In  the  latter  of  his  speeches  he  said  : 
"  The  scene  in  which  we  are  now  present  is  indeed  a 
magnificent  spectacle.  To  see  the  freeholders  of  this 
great  county  assembled  together,  and  freely  choosing 
their  own  representatives  in  Parliament,  is  a  sight  in 
the  highest  degree  gratifying  and  animating  to  those 
who  know  the  real  nature  and  the  high  value  of  true 

1  See  Life  of  Lord  Sidmouth,  vol.  ii.  p.  71. 


304         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"  liberty.  .  .  .  Let  those  deluded  men,  whether  of  this  or 
any  other  country,  who  have  so  far  mistaken  the  real 
spirit  of  liberty  as  to  confound  it  with  anarchy,  come 
hither  and  have  their  error  corrected,  and  learn  to 
know  and  admire  that  true  image  of  constitutional 
freedom  which  is  here  exhibited." 

His  other  speech  is  more  interesting  as  showing 
what  he  conceived  to  be  the  relationship  between 
a  representative  and  his  constituents.  He  said : 
"  We  cannot  expect  that  even  our  constituents  should 
approve  of  every  particular  of  our  conduct.  They 
may  indeed,  and  ought  to  require  that  their  repre- 
sentatives should  agree  with  them  in  the  great 
principles  of  political  conduct,  and  likewise  in  the 
general  line  to  be  pursued  in  any  given  conjuncture  of 
affairs.  But  provided  there  be  this  general  agreement, 
they  ought  not  too  scrupulously  to  look  for  an  exact 
coincidence  in  every  individual  vote,  and  on  every 
particular  question.  I  heartily  rejoice  to  find  that  you 
approve  of  these  principles.  They  send  your  member 
to  Parliament,  the  free  and  liberal  representative  of  a 
free  people,  and  not  your  slave,  fettered  and  shackled— 
a  character  which  I  should  feel  degrading,  though  it 
were  to  be  the  slave  even  of  the  county  of  York 
itself."1 

There  is,  already  here,  some  slight  modification  of 
the  more  independent  views  put  forward  by  Edmund 
Burke  which  I  have  already  quoted.  In  later  years  the 
change  will  become  ever  more  and  more  marked. 

It  would  seem  from  these  speeches  that  in  the  more 
popular  constituencies  a  closer  relationship  was  becoming 
recognised  between  members  and  their  constituents, 
and  this  view  is  confirmed  by  a  speech  of  Canning's  in 

1  Cobbett's  Political  Register,  1802,  p.  1617. 


CHAP,  vui  A  LADY  PLATFORMER  305 

the  following  year.1  On  a  motion  relative  to  the 
conduct  of  Ministers  he  inveighed  against  them  for 
having  given  expression,  almost  daily  before  Christmas 

1802,  to  a  belief  in  the  continuance  of  peace,  whilst 
their  internal  convictions  were  directly  at  variance  with 
the   assertions  which  they  made ;  and  he  exclaimed  : 
"  Should  it  be  borne  that  members  should  have  been 
sent  down  among  their  constituents  (as  had  happened 
at  the  Christmas  recess)  to  spread  falsehood  and  error 
throughout  the  country ;  and  that  the  confiding  country 
should  have  been  misled  into  incorrect  and  groundless 
views  and  deluded  into  visionary  hopes,  only  that  it 
might  feel  more  seriously  the  blow  of  disappointment." 

An  interesting  statement  bearing  on  the  Platform  at 
this  general  election  is  to  be  found  in  an  entertaining 
tract  entitled  "  Thoughts  on  the  late  General  Election 
as  demonstrative  of  the  Progress  of  Jacobinism,"  by  a 
certain  John  Bowles,  a  vehement  Tory  barrister.  He 
said  that,  "  During  a  contest  at  Lancaster  in  the 
General  Election  of  1802,  the  Jacobinical  mob  was 
addressed  by  a  lady,  who  told  them  that  '  the  contest 
was  between  shoes  and  wooden  clogs,  between  fine 
shirts  and  coarse  ones,  between  the  opulent  and  the 
poor,  and  that  the  people  were  everything  if  they  chose 
to  assert  their  rights." 

The  election  over,  the  Platform  sank  again  into  a 
state  of  quiescence.  The  suspension  of  the  Habeas 
Corpus  Act  ceased,  the  Act  against  Seditious  Meetings 
expired,  but  the  spirit  of  the  reformers  had  been  tem- 
porarily broken,  and  the  Act  against  the  Societies, 
which  was  still  in  force,  effectually  held  the  more 
extreme  or  desperate  class  of  men  in  check.  The 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xxxvi.,          2  "Thoughts   on    the   late   General 

1803,  p.  1566.  Election,"  etc.,  by  John  Bowles,  p.  63. 


306         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  however,  was  not 
a  time  when  internal  constitutional  reforms  could  be 
considered.  The  brief  interlude  of  peace  had  come  only 
too  quickly  to  an  end,  and  Great  Britain  was  once  more 
plunged  into  a  war  for  her  very  existence  as  a  nation. 
In  a  life-and-death  struggle  every  other  consideration 
has  to  be  subordinated ;  the  great  bulk  of  the  people  of 
England  felt  that  it  had  to  be  so ;  and,  therefore,  during 
the  long  years  that  the  war  lasted,  the  history  of  the 
Platform  lay  mainly  in  the  contests  of  Parliamentary 
elections,  and  in  the  occasional  outbursts  of  opinion 
upon  some  event  of  the  day,  of  such  a  character  as  to 
impel  the  people  to  indignant  remonstrant  speech. 

The  sessions  of  1803  and  of  1804  were  entirely 
taken  up  with  the  discussion  of  the  measures  rendered 
necessary  by  the  war — Volunteer  Bills,  Additional  Force 
Bills,  Foreign  Troops  Enlistment  Bills.  No  meeting 
worth  reporting  appears  to  have  been  held  in  the 
country.  No  Petition  worth  mentioning  appears  to 
have  been  presented  to  Parliament.  Public  attention 
was  absorbed  in  the  dread  of  invasion,  which  appeared 
imminent,  and  in  preparation  to  meet  it. 

The  only  break  in  the  silence  of  the  Platform  during 
these  years  was  a  contested  election  which  took  place 
in  the  county  of  Middlesex  in  July  1804.  A  detailed 
account  of  it  shows  the  part  which  the  Platform  could 
take  on  such  rare  occasions.  The  illustration  is  an 
extreme  one,  because  the  contest  was  for  the  representa- 
tion of  a  county  then  one  of  the  most  populous  and 
popular  constituencies  in  the  kingdom ;  it  extended 
over  the  full  legal  period  then  allowed  for  an  election, 
and  the  electorate  was  one  of  the  most  enlightened, 
civilised,  and  advanced  in  the  country. 

A  vacancy  had  occurred  in  the  representation  of  the 


CHAP,  vin  A  MIDDLESEX  CONTEST  307 

county,  and  the  seat  was  contested  by  Sir  Francis 
Burdett  and  a  Mr.  Mainwaring,  the  former  being  the 
popular  candidate.1 

Early  on  Monday  morning,  the  23d  of  July,  Sir 
F.  Burdett  drove  out  to  Brentford  from  London,  with 
bands  and  banners  and  seven  outriders,  and  a  pro- 
cession of  vehicles  following  him ;  and  soon  after  Mr. 
Mainwaring  arrived  in  a  chariot  and  six,  with  postilions 
in  scarlet  livery.  The  space  in  front  of  the  hustings 
was  crowded.  At  half-past  ten  the  sheriffs  proceeded 
to  the  business  of  the  day.  The  reading  of  the  writs 
and  the  usual  preliminary  formalities  being  gone 
through,  Mr.  P.  Moore,  M.P.,  made  a  speech,  proposing 
Sir  F.  Burdett,  and  Mr.  Knight  seconded  the  nomina- 
tion. Sir  W.  Curtis  began  a  speech,  but  there  was 
"  such  a  degree  of  hissing  "  that  the  sheriff  had  to  in- 
tercede for  a  hearing  for  him,  which  being  secured,  he 
again  came  forward,  and  proposed  Mr.  Mainwaring, 
and  Colonel  Wood  seconded  the  nomination. 

Being  thus  proposed,  Sir  F.  Burdett  rose  to  speak. 
He  was  received  with  acclamation,  and  made  a  regular 
electioneering  speech.  Mr.  Mainwaring  followed,  but 
after  some  sentences  the  hissing  became  so  loud  he  had 
to  stop.  The  two  candidates  were  then  formally  pro- 
posed by  the  sheriffs,  a  show  of  hands  taken,  and  a  poll 
demanded.  The  poll  at  once  commenced,  and  was  con- 
tinued till  five  o'clock,  when  the  sheriffs  declared  the 
numbers  to  be  for  Sir  F.  Burdett,  611 ;  for  Mr.  Main- 
waring,  528.  Sir  F.  Burdett  then  made  a  speech.  Mr. 
Mainwaring  tried  to  do  the  same,  but  the  people  would 
not  hear  him.  The  poll  was  then  adjourned.  At  ten 
o'clock  the  next  day  the  poll  was  reopened.  When  it 

1  For  the  detailed  account  of  this       Cobbett's  Political  Register  for  1804, 
election,  with  reports  of  speeches,  see       vol.  vi.  p.  257. 


308         THE  PLATFORM  :  ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

closed  in  the  evening  Sir  F.  Burdett  had  972  votes, 
Main  waring  927.  Again  did  Sir  F.  Burdett  deliver  a 
speech ;  again  did  Mr.  Main  waring  attempt  to  address 
the  electors ;  but  after  a  variety  of  efforts  the  tumult  of 
the  populace  was  so  very  great  that  he  pointed  several 
times  to  the  numbers  on  the  poll  board  and  retired 
from  the  hustings. 

The  third  day  Mr.  Mainwaring  was  one  vote  ahead. 
It  would  be  tedious  to  go  through  the  proceedings  day 
by  day.  Every  evening,  at  the  close  of  the  poll,  Sir  F. 
Burdett  made  a  speech;  every  day  Mr.  Mainwaring 
attempted  to  do  so  too.  The  fourth  day  varied  some- 
what, inasmuch,  as  after  the  close  of  the  poll  for  the  day, 
Sir  F.  Burdett  dined  at  a  tavern  with  some  300  of 
his  friends,  where  his  health  was  drunk  with  three 
times  three  —  "the  warm  friend  of  humanity,  the 
indignant  resister  of  oppression,  and  the  steady  assertor 
of  his  country's  rights."  On  the  seventh  day  the 
evening  was  spent  in  the  same  way.  Still  Mr.  Main- 
waring  kept  slightly  ahead.  On  the  eighth  day  he 
was  64  votes  ahead.  Each  day  he  tried  to  speak, 
each  day  he  had  been  refused  a  hearing.  On  this  day 
he  tried  again,  "  but  the  voice  of  a  Stentor,  or  the 
eloquence  of  a  Demosthenes  would  have  vainly  attempted 
to  make  any  impression."  Ninth,  tenth,  eleventh, 
twelfth,  thirteenth,  fourteenth  day,  still  the  same ;  one 
wonders  at  any  human  endurance  holding  out.  On  the 
fifteenth  day  the  poll  closed.  Owing  to  some  disputed 
votes  the  declaration  of  the  poll  was  not  given  that 
night.  Sir  F.  Burdett  made  a  final  speech,  and  was 
es6orted  to  London  by  a  cavalcade  and  bands,  not 
reaching  his  house  till  eleven  o'clock  at  night.  The 
next  day  he  was  again  back  at  Brentford,  and  the  poll 
was  declared  for  Mr.  Mainwaring,  2828 ;  for  Sir  F. 


CHAP,  vin  THE  MELVILLE  SCANDAL  309 

Burdett,  2823 — majority  for  Main  waring,  5.  When  the 
business  of  the  hustings  was  declared  to  be  finally  at 
an  end,  Mr.  Mainwaring  was  conveyed  under  protection 
of  the  police  to  the  house  of  a  friend. 

A  political  revel  such  as  this,  where,  for  nearly  three 
weeks,  the  county  town  was  kept  in  a  whirl  of  excite- 
ment and  agitation,  and  was  the  centre  of  the  political 
passions  and  hopes  of  the  county,  where  day  after  day 
the  electors  had  the  opportunity  of  hearing  political 
speeches  from  the  Platform,  of  learning  at  least  some- 
thing on  the  subject  of  politics,  and  of  feeling  that  the 
power  actually  rested  with  them  of  deciding  which  of 
the  competitors  was  to  represent  them  in  Parliament — 
an  episode  such  as  this  could  not  but  quicken  political 
life,  and  awaken  political  enthusiasm,  which,  as  years 
went  on,  would  gather  force  and  volume. 

How  long  the  Platform  might  have  remained 
quiescent,  except  for  occasional  electoral  struggles,  it  is 
impossible  to  say.  The  suspicion  of  Jacobinism,  and 
the  taint  of  sedition,  which  its  foes  had  succeeded  in 
fixing  on  it,  might  possibly  have  kept  it  in  abeyance 
for  a  prolonged  period.  In  the  temper,  and  tone,  and 
circumstances  of  the  times  many  years  might  have 
elapsed  before  it  again  became  an  active  force. 
Suddenly,  however,  an  event  occurred  which  woke  it 
into  life  and  action.  A  series  of  peculations  of  public 
funds  was  brought  to  light,  and  the  person  incriminated 
was  no  petty  officer  of  the  public  service,  but  a  Cabinet 
Minister,  the  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty  and 
Treasurer  of  the  Navy — Lord  Melville,  he  who  had 
been  the  well-known  Henry  Dundas.  Two  or  three 
other  officials  of  the  Department  were  also  inculpated 
with  him.  The  disclosure  was  all  the  more  striking, 
inasmuch,  as  Lord  Melville  had  spent  his  whole  life  in 


310        THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

politics.  He  was  a  close  friend  of  Pitt,  next  to  Pitt 
was  the  most  able  and  experienced  member  of  Pitt's 
Cabinet,  was  possessed  of  great  influence,  and  enjoyed  a 
large  amount  of  public  confidence. 

A  Commission  had  been  appointed  in  1803  by  an 
Act  of  Parliament  to  inquire  and  examine  into  any 
irregularities,  frauds,  or  abuses,  in  the  administration  of 
the  naval  departments.  In  their  tenth  Report,  which 
was  made  in  1805,  the  Commissioners  drew  attention  to 
the  fact  that  large  sums  of  the  public  money  which  had 
passed  through  Lord  Melville's  hands,  and  the  hands  of 
two  or  three  other  officials  of  the  Department  were 
utterly  unaccounted  for,  and  of  which  they  could  get  no 
account  from  him. 

Lord  Melville's  replies  to  the  Commissioners  when 
questioned  were  not  those  of  an  innocent  man.  He 
endeavoured  to  defend  himself  on  the  plea  that  he  could 
not  disclose  confidential  communications  of  Government, 
then  that  he  had  burnt  the  papers — which  would  have 
decided  his  guilt  or  innocence, — then  that  he  had  lost  his 
recollection  of  the  whole  affair,  though  it  had  so  recently 
occurred. 

The  matter  was  brought  before  the  House  of  Com- 
mons by  Mr.  Whitbread  on  the  8th  April,  who  charged 
Lord  Melville  first  with  having  applied  the  money 
of  the  public  to  other  uses  than  those  of  the  naval 
department,  in  contempt  of  an  Act  of  Parliament,  and 
in  gross  violation  of  his  duty ;  and  secondly,  with  con- 
niving at  a  system  of  peculation  in  an  individual  for 
whose  conduct  in  the  use  of  the  public  money  he  was 
deeply  responsible  ;  and  thirdly,  with  his  having  him- 
self been  a  participator  in  such  peculation.1 

Whitbread  said :  "A  wound  had  been  inflicted  on 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  iv.  p.  255. 


CHAP,  vin  THE  MELVILLE  SCANDAL  311 

the  very  existence  of  the  country,  which  it  was  the  duty 
of  every  member  of  the  House  to  see  checked  and 
punished." 

The  Government  did  their  best  to  break  the  force  of 
this  indictment,  and  to  mitigate  the  heinousness  of  the 
offence,  and  Pitt  moved  "the  previous  question,"  and  then 
that  the  Report  of  the  Commissioners  should  be  referred 
to  a  Select  Committee,  to  examine  the  matter  thereof, 
and  report  the  same  to  the  House. 

On  the  division,  216  voted  for  Mr.  Whitbread's 
first  resolution,  and  216  for  the  Government  proposal. 
The  Speaker  gave  his  casting  vote  in  favour  of  Mr. 
Whitbread's  motion,  thereby  making  a  majority  of  one.1 

Several  resolutions  on  the  subject  were  then  adopted 
by  the  House  of  Commons,  the  principal  one  being : 
"  That  the  Eight  Hon.  Lord  Viscount  Melville  having 
been  privy  to,  and  connived  at  the  withdrawing  from 
the  Bank  of  England,  for  purposes  of  private  interest  or 
emolument,  sums  issued  to  him  as  Treasurer  of  the  Navy, 
and  placed  to  his  account  in  the  Bank,  according  to  the 
provisions  of  the  25  Geo.  III.,  cap.  31,  has  been  guilty 
of  a  gross  violation  of  the  law,  and  a  high  breach  of 
duty." 

Two  days  later,  and  before  an  Address  could  be 
moved  to  the  King  for  his  removal  from  office,  he 
resigned  his  appointment  as  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty. 

The  shock  to  the  public  mind  was  great. 

Here,  at  first  sight,  was  proof  of  what  year  after 
year  the  Platform  had  been  alleging  against  successive 
Governments — an  enormous  malversation  of  public  funds 
and  wholesale  corruption.  Here  was  conclusive  evidence 
of  the  necessity  of  Parliamentary  reform. 

The    Platform    had   not,    indeed,    waited    even    for 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  ir.  p.  320. 


312         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

Parliamentary  action,  for  shortly  after  the  publication  of 
the  tenth  Report  of  the  Commissioners,  a  requisition  was 
made  to  the  Lord  Mayor  of  London  for  a  meeting  of  the 
Common  Hall,  "  to  consider  the  flagrant  abuses  in  the 
management  and  expenditure  of  the  public  money  ;  for 
instructing  the  representatives  of  the  city  in  Parliament 
strenuously  to  promote  all  inquiry  for  the  said  abuses, 
and  to  vote  for  the  removal  from  the  public  service  of  al] 
persons  implicated  in  them." 

Before  the  meeting  was  held,  however,  action  had 
been  taken  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  when  the 
meeting  came  off  on  the  18th  April,  the  House  of 
Commons  was  warmly  praised. 

Waithman  said  :  "It  is  a  matter  of  sincere  satis- 
faction that  the  House  of  Commons  has  vindicated  our 
rights ;  that  they  have,  indeed,  shown  themselves  the 
true  representatives  of  the  country ;  that  they  have 
increased  our  confidence  in  them  as  the  guardians  alike 
of  our  property  and  our  liberties." l 

Resolutions  were  passed,  and  an  Address  to  the  King 
adopted. 

Southwark,  Westminster,  Middlesex,  all  held  meet- 
ings, at  all  of  which  there  rang  from  the  Platform  con- 
demnation of  the  conduct  now  brought  to  light.  The 
meeting  of  the  freeholders  of  Middlesex  was  "  the  most 
numerous  meeting  we  ever  saw.  It  breathed  a  spirit  of 
manly  firmness  and  indignation  at  the  flagrant  and 
atrocious  conduct  of  Ministers  which  for  many  years  we 
have  not  been  accustomed  to  see  at  any  meeting  of 
the  people." 2  The  speech  of  a  Mr.  Tuffnell  affords  a  good 
summary  of  the  ideas  of  the  Platform  on  the  subject. 
He  said  :  "  It  is  proved  that  the  public  money  has  been 
converted  to  corrupt  purposes  by  one  of  the  most 

1  Morning  Chronicle,  19th  April.  2  Ibid.,  3d  May. 


CHAP,  vin      THE  PLATFORM  ON  LORD  MELVILLE  313 

responsible  and  most  confidential  members  of  his 
Majesty's  Cabinet.  It  is  proved  that  a  system  of  fraud 
and  peculation  has,  for  a  period  of  above  sixteen  years, 
been  carried  on  in  one  of  the  most  important  and  expen- 
sive departments  of  Government  under  the  immediate 
control  of  Lord  Melville,  and  that  it  has  been  committed 
in  direct  violation  of  an  Act  of  Parliament — an  Act 
which  had  been  introduced  and  framed  by  himself.  .  .  . 
Shall  it  be  endured  that  at  a  period  when  we  are  arrived 
almost  at  the  extreme  limits  of  possible  taxation — when 
we  are  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  taxing  the  very 
sources  of  existence — when  we  are  compelled  to  lay 
heavy  additional  imposts  on  all  the  most  essential 
articles  of  life,  without  which  the  poorest  in  the  country 
cannot  subsist  ?  Shall  it  be  endured  that  men  holding 
the  highest  and  most  lucrative  situations  in  the  country 
shall  violate  the  most  salutary  Acts  of  the  Legislature  ? 
Shall  such  men  with  impunity  divert  the  public  money 
from  its  prescribed  course  to  purposes  of  private  emolu- 
ment or  public  corruption  ?  The  House  of  Commons, 
by  their  decision,  have  diffused  general  confidence  and 
satisfaction,  and  have  justly  entitled  themselves  to  the 
warmest  gratitude  of  their  country.  ...  It  remains  for 
us  to  perform  our  duty,  in  exercising  the  right  of  the 
people  to  express  our  sentiments  on  all  public  measures." 
A  Petition  asking  for  Lord  Melville's  punishment,  etc., 
was  adopted,  and  for  an  inquiry  into  all  other  depart- 
ments of  the  State. 

On  the  3d  May  the  electors  of  Westminster  held  a 
meeting  in  Palace  Yard.  Fox  spoke  at  it.  He  urged 
further  proceedings  against  Lord  Melville.  The  only 
pledge  they  had  against  future  abuses  was  the  infliction 
of  exemplary  vengeance.  He  called  on  the  meeting  not 
to  flag  in  their  exertions  to  have  all  this  business  sifted 


3H         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

to  the  bottom,  for  if  they  were  not  true  to  themselves 
how  could  they  expect  their  representatives  to  be  anxious 
for  the  correction  of  abuses. 

"  The  gentry,  clergy,  and  freeholders  "  of  Northum- 
berland, Berkshire,  Cornwall,  Hants,  Essex,  Surrey, 
Kent,  and  other  counties,  had  their  meetings,  and  sent 
Petitions  to  the  House  of  Commons  against  Lord  Mel- 
ville. A  system  of  economy  also  was  urgently  pressed. 
The  House  was  reminded  of  the  great  and  increasing 
necessity  for  its  vigilant  attention  to  the  due  applica- 
tion of  the  public  money,  and  it  was  besought  to  perse- 
vere in  the  inquiries,  and  to  bring  all  delinquents  to 
condign  and  exemplary  punishment.1  Evidently,  though 
the  country  had  been  forced  into  quiescence,  it  had  not 
been  for  ever  silenced.  Early  in  May  1805  Lord  Mel- 
ville's name  was  removed  from  the  list  of  the  Privy 
Council,  and  soon  after  a  motion  was  carried  for  his 
impeachment.  The  trial,  which  took  place  in  the  House 
of  Lords,  did  not  come  off  until  April  in  the  following 
year,  when  the  majority  of  the  Lords  found  him  "  Not 
guilty,"  though  on  one  of  the  charges  there  was  only  a 
majority  of  27  in  favour  of  his  innocence.2 

Some  light  is  thrown  on  the  value  of  this  acquittal 
by  an  entry  in  the  diary  of  Charles  Greville. 

"  If  any  proof  were  requisite  of  the  mighty  influence 
of  party  spirit,  it  would  be  found  in  a  still  stronger  light 
in  the  State  Trials  in  the  House  of  Lords.  I  have  in 
my  mind  the  trial  of  Lord  Melville.  .  .  .  Either  by  an 
extraordinary  accident,  or  by  the  influence  of  party 
spirit,  we  beheld  all  the  peers  on  the  ministerial  side  of 
the  House  declaring  Lord  Melville  innocent,  and  all 
those  of  the  Opposition  pronouncing  him  guilty." 


8 


1  For  copies  of  these  Petitions  see          2  81-54,  and  on  another  31  (83-52). 
Cobbett's  Political  Register,  vol.  vii.  3  See  Greville,  Memoirs,  vol.  i.  p.  19. 


CHAP,  vin        THE  GENERAL  ELECTION  OF  1806  315 

On  the  23d  January  1806  William  Pitt,  the  great 
Minister,  passed  away. 

Lord  Grenville  became  Prime  Minister  in  his  stead, 
Fox  Secretary  of  State  for  Foreign  Affairs,  Grey  First 
Lord  of  the  Admiralty,  and  Erskine  Lord  Chancellor. 
But  even  with  these  men  in  power — men  who  for  years 
had  stood  in  the  front  rank  of  reformers — little  reform 
legislation  was  practicable. 

The  issues  at  stake  in  the  war  were  still  so  vital  and 
absorbing  that  there  was  little  time  or  energy  left  to 
devote  to  home  affairs.  Within  a  short  time  Fox  died. 
Before  that  sad  event  happened,  however,  one  pledge  was 
obtained  from  the  House  on  the  subject  of  the  slave-trade, 
to  which  more  detailed  reference  will  presently  be  made, 
and  on  the  24th  October  1806  Parliament  was  dissolved. 

If  we  may  judge  by  the  number  of  contests,  it  would 
appear  that  there  was  some  falling  off  in  political 
activity,  and  therefore  in  the  scope  for  the  Platform. 
There  were  contests  in  only  5  English  counties,  and  in 
46  boroughs,  or  a  total  of  51  contests  as  against  73  in 
1802.  But,  even  so,  the  stagnation  of  the  political 
life  of  the  people  was  broken. 

Cobbett,1  who  by  this  time  had  become  a  strong 
reformer,  and  an  advanced  politician,  has  summed  up 
admirably  the  advantages  of  a  general  election  from  the 
popular  point  of  view. 

He  wrote  :  "  The  reason  for  which  I  like  a  dissolu- 
tion of  Parliament  is,  that  be  the  motive  what  it  may 
from  which  it  takes  place,  it  is  sure  to  make  a  little  stir. 
It  is  sure  to  keep  alive  certain  useful  recollections.  .  .  . 
Every  dissolution  gives  rise  to  some  one  or  more  import- 
ant contests,  as,  for  instance,  in  the  present  case  the 
contests  in  Hants,  Middlesex,  and  Westminster.2 

1  Political  Register,  1806,  vol.  x.  p.  938.  -  Ibid.  p.  990. 


316         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"  In  Hampshire,  on  both  sides,  the  candidates  ap- 
pealed, in  words  at  least,  to  the  independence  of  the 
freeholders.  They  professed  on  both  sides  to  be 
struggling  for  the  independence  of  the  county.  On 
the  one  side  they  made  a  merit  of  having  served  long 
in  Parliament  without  obtaining  places  or  pensions  ;  and, 
on  the  other  side,  one  of  the  candidates  actually  re- 
signed a  place  in  order  thereby  to  remove  one  objection 
against  him." 

"  Those  who  see  in  an  election  no  other  object  than 
merely  that  of  seating  a  member  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, will  of  course  see  no  good  that  has  been  done  by 
the  dissolution  in  giving  rise  to  the  contests  in  Middle- 
sex and  Westminster.  But  will  such  persons,  however 
much  they  may  dispute  the  good,  pretend  to  believe 
that  the  sixteen  speeches  of  Sir  F.  Burdett,  promul- 
gated as  they  have  been  through  every  public  print  in 
the  whole  kingdom,  together  with  his  several  addresses, 
particularly  the  last,  will  they  pretend  that  all  these 
have  produced  no  effect  ?  .  .  .  Will  they  pretend  that 
all  the  speeches,  all  the  addresses,  all  the  resolutions,  all 
the  numerous  publications  relative  to  the  Westminster 
election,  have  had  no  effect  upon  the  people  ?  .  .  . 

"  A  dissolution  of  Parliament  is  always,  and  always 
must  be,  a  positive  good ;  because  it  is  sure  to  give  rise 
to  much  discussion  upon  the  principles,  and  the  conduct, 
private  as  well  as  public,  of  men  aiming  at  posts  of  high 
trust.  At  the  same  time  that  it  creates  the  subject  of 
discussion,  it  enlarges,  for  a  few  days  at  least,  the 
freedom  of  discussion  ;  and  as  free  discussion  must 
necessarily  tend  to  the  establishment  and  the  extension 
of  truth,  it  must,  by  all  those  who  prefer  truth  to  false- 
hood, and  knowledge  to  ignorance,  be  regarded  as  a 
good." 


CHAP,  viu  A  CORRUPT  BOROUGH  317 

There  was  another  side  to  elections,  however,  and 
Cobbett's  own  experiences  are  amusing,  and  give  us  an 
example  of  how  little  the  Platform  availed  at  some  places.1 
He  went  down  to  contest  Honiton  in  Devonshire  in  1806, 
but  after  addressing  the  electors  he  withdrew. 

"When  I  went  as  a  candidate  to  Honiton  in  the 
year  1806,  I  began  by  posting  up  a  bill,  having  at  the 
top  of  it  this  passage  of  Scripture  :  '  Fire  shall  consume 
the  tabernacles  of  bribery.'  After  this  I  addressed 
myself  to  the  people  of  the  place,  telling  them  how 
wicked  and  detestable  it  was  to  take  bribes.  Most  of 
the  corrupt  villains  laughed  in  my  face ;  but  some  of 
the  women  actually  cried  out  against  me  as  I  went 
along  the  streets,  as  a  man  that  had  come  to  rob  them 
of  their  blessing. 

"  The  whole  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  borough,  the 
whole  of  the  persons  who  return  two  members  to  Par- 
liament, are  bound  together  in  an  indissoluble  chain  of 
venality.  .  .  .  One  man  told  me  that  he  and  his  wife 
had  lived  all  their  lives  in  the  borough,  and  had  never 
before  heard  a  word  of  truth  from  a  candidate." 

The  new  Parliament  met  on  the  15th  December 
1806,  and  one  measure  was  promptly  carried  by  it, 
which  was  a  triumph  for  a  cause  in  which  the  Platform 
had  been  largely  utilised — this  was  the  abolition  of  the 
slave  trade. 

It  is  in  some  cases  difficult  to  determine  how  far  the 
Platform  may  rightly  claim  to  have  brought  about  a 
particular  measure  of  reform.  In  the  larger,  more 
important  agitations,  there  is  no  difficulty ;  one  sees  at 
once  that  they  were  carried  by  the  Platform,  but  in  some 
of  the  less  important  agitations  the  point  is  not  so 
clear,  other  agencies  having  been  also  used.  After  some 

1  Political  Register,  vol.  xlviii.  p.  500. 


318         THE  PLATFORM:   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

acquaintance  with  successive  agitations  in  which  the 
Platform  took  part,  one  can  easily  trace  a  regular 
course  of  procedure.  An  abuse  or  grievance  became 
felt,  an  association  would  be  formed  to  obtain  a  reform, 
and  essays,  leaflets,  pamphlets,  articles  in  the  Press, 
employed  to  enlighten  and  influence  the  public  mind. 
Meetings  would  be  held,  and  the  persuasive  influence 
of  the  Platform  pressed  into  service.  If  the  association 
counted  amongst  its  members  some  members  of  Parlia- 
ment, debates  in  Parliament  would  be  originated.  The 
debates  would  be  reported  in  and  criticised  by  the  Press, 
and  public  attention  further  directed  to  the  subject; 
thus  all  these  agencies  or  powers  would  act  and  react 
one  upon  another,  until  it  seems  unfair  to  attribute  to 
any  one  of  them  the  decisive  influence  in  securing  the 
reform.  History,  moreover,  has  usually  been  so  written 
as  to  give  the  aspect  that  the  struggle  for  particular 
reforms  has  been  fought  in  Parliament.  The  progress 
of  a  cause  was  recorded  in  growing  minorities  and 
diminishing  majorities  there,  the  gradual  change  was 
ascribed  to  the  speeches  and  views  of  members  in 
Parliament,  and  the  ultimate  measure  which  secured 
the  object  of  the  agitation  was  attributed  to  the  wisdom 
of  a  particular  Government. 

The  time  was,  when  history  was  made  by  kings  and 
Parliament  alone,  and  historians  are  to  be  excused  for 
narrowing  their  records  accordingly.  Now,  however,  a 
nation's  life  lies  in  other  things  than  these ;  far  wider 
interests  and  fields  have  developed  themselves,  and 
claim  equality  if  not  priority ;  a  truer  appreciation  of 
the  principles  of  history  prevails,  and  piercing  the  veil 
of  Parliamentary  action,  the  forces  lying  behind  it — the 
vital  forces  of  the  life  of  the  nation — are  sought  out  and 
described. 


CHAP,  via     THE  PLATFORM  AND  THE  SLAVE  TRADE         319 

The  question  of  the  Slave  Trade  had  in  one  way  or 
another  been  before  Parliament  for  twenty  years.  It 
was  started  in  1787,  when  "a  meeting  of  several 
humane  men  "  was  held  in  London,  who  formed  them- 
selves into  a  Committee  or  Association  to  raise  funds 
and  collect  the  information  necessary  for  procuring  the 
abolition  of  the  trade  in  African  slaves.1 

By  their  means  many  publications  were  circulated, 
and  a  general  knowledge  of  the  horrors  of  the  trade 
extensively  diffused ;  they  became  a  central  body,  from 
which  emanated  many  similar  societies  in  the  chief 
towns,  and  they  urged  the  people  to  petition  for  aboli- 
tion, and  even  to  forbear  the  use  of  colonial  productions 
till  it  could  be  obtained. 

Writing  in  February  1788  Wilberforce  says,  refer- 
ring to  the  slave  trade  :  "  It  is  highly  desirable  that  the 
public  voice  should  be  exerted  in  our  support  as  loudly 
and  as  universally  as  possible.  Many  places  and  some 
counties  have  already  determined  to  petition  to  Parlia- 
ment, and  I  should  be  sorry  that  our  little  kingdom 
should  be  backward  in  its  endeavours  to  rescue  our 
fellow-creatures  from  misery,  and  relieve  our  national 
character  from  the  foulest  dishonour.  I  am  persuaded 
that  if  a  beginning  is  made,  the  work  will  go  on  with 
spirit.  There  is  no  need  of  a  county  meeting,  but 
district  meetings  might  be  held  in  different  parts  of  the 
county,  and  the  rest  be  effected  by  public  advertise- 
ments." 

By  about  1792  numerous  public  meetings  on  the 
question  were  taking  place,  and  Petitions  were  sent  by 
them  to  Parliament.  "  Of  the  enthusiasm  of  the  nation 
at  this  time,"  wrote  Clarkson,  pardonably  enthusiastic 
himself,  "  none  can  form  an  opinion  but  they  who 

1  See  History  of  the  Abolition  of  the  Slave  Trade,  by  Thomas  Clarksoii,  1839. 


320         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"  witnessed  it.  ...  Great  pains  were  taken  by  interested 
persons  in  many  places  to  prevent  public  meetings ; 
but  no  efforts  could  avail.  The  current  ran  with  such 
strength  and  rapidity  that  it  was  impossible  to  stem 
it."1 

The  question  had  many  warm  advocates  in  Parlia- 
ment, foremost  among  them  being  Wilberforce,  to  whom 
the  main  honour  of  this  great  philanthropic  measure  is 
due,  and  at  different  times  it  was  supported  by  the 
leaders  on  both  sides.  It  was,  however,  left  very  much 
to  the  fortune  of  desultory  debate  in  Parliament,  and 
to  the  influence  of  the  popular  cry  out  of  doors.  Now 
at  last,  with  a  Whig  Government  in  office,  Fox,  Secre- 
tary of  State,  who  for  sixteen  or  seventeen  years  of 
his  life  had  strenuously  supported  Wilberforce  in  this 
matter,  took  the  subject  warmly  up,  and  at  his  insti- 
gation a  resolution  was  adopted  by  the  House  of 
Commons,  pledging  itself  at  the  very  earliest  oppor- 
tunity to  pass  a  measure  abolishing  the  trade. 

"  If  he  had  passed  that  measure,"  said  Fox,  "  he 
would  feel  that  he  could  retire  from  public  life  with 
comfort  and  conscious  satisfaction  that  he  had  done  his 
duty"2  —  prophetic  words,  for  before  Parliament  met 
again  he  had  passed  away.  His  colleagues,  however, 
gave  effect  to  his  wish,  and  to  the  pledge  of  the  House 
of  Commons,  that  it  would  take  the  earliest  opportunity 
of  considering  the  question  ;  and  when  the  new  Parlia- 
ment met  on  the  15th  of  December,  one  of  the  first 
measures  proposed  was  the  abolition  of  the  Slave  Trade. 
It  was  introduced  in  the  House  of  Lords  and  carried 
there.  In  the  House  of  Commons  it  was  carried  by 
triumphant  majorities  through  every  stage  of  its  pro- 

1  See  History  of  the  Abolition  of  the          2  Parliamentary  Debates,  1806,  vol. 
Slave    Trade,    by   Tfiomas   Clarkson        vii.  p.  580. 
1839,  p.  497. 


CHAP,  via     THE  ABOLITION  OF  THE  SLAVE  TRADE  321 

gress,  and  it  received  the  royal  assent  on  the  25th 
March  1807;  only  just  in  time,  for  half  an  hour  later 
there  was  a  change  of  Government,  and  the  measure 
would  certainly  have  been  delayed,  possibly  dropped 
for  years.  It  was  a  great  and  glorious  triumph  for 
public  opinion,  and  in  the  formation  of  that  public 
opinion  the  Platform,  though  not  so  obtrusive  as  at 
other  times,  had  played  an  important,  useful,  and 
convincing  part. 

As  to  the  share  taken  by  Parliament  in  this  great 
reform,  we  have  the  very  discriminating  view  of  a 
contemporary  writer  in  the  Edinburgh  Revieiv.  He 
wrote :  "  The  measure  has,  no  doubt,  been  carried 
through  by  the  enlightened  zeal  of  the  late  Ministry. 
But  there  are  predisposing  causes  to  which  the  ultimate 
result  must  be  ascribed.  This  is  not,  we  apprehend, 
one  of  the  cases  where  the  wisdom  of  Government  has 
gone  before  the  voice  of  the  people,  where  great  states- 
men, outstripping  their  age,  have  introduced  changes, 
barely  acquiesced  in  for  the  present,  and  justly 
appreciated  only  by  after -times.  The  sense  of  the 
nation  has  pressed  the  abolition  upon  our  rulers. 
Parliament  has  complied  with  the  general  feeling,  after 
the  eyes  of  all  men  were  opened,  and  their  voices  lifted 
up  against  the  combined  impolicy  and  injustice  of  the 
slave-trade." * 

We  must  return,  however,  to  more  general  events. 
The  Whig  Ministry,  before  the  royal  assent  was 
given  to  this  Bill,  ran  full  tilt  on  the  rock  on  which 
Pitt  had  foundered  in  1801 — namely,  on  that  of  con- 
cessions to  the  Roman  Catholics.  The  King  summarily 
dismissed  them,  and  in  April  the  Duke  of  Portland 
was  made  Prime  Minister,  with  Perceval  as  Chancellor 

1  Edinburgh  Review,  vol.  x.  p.  205,  1807. 


322         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

of  the  Exchequer,  and  Canning  as  Foreign  Secretary, 
Naturally  enough,  in  order  to  strengthen  themselves, 
they  were  anxious  to  get  a  House  of  Commons  elected 
on  the  new  issues  caused  by  the  fiasco  of  the  Whigs, 
and,  being  determined  to  take  advantage  of  the  "No 
Popery"  cry  which  had  been  most  industriously  excited 
throughout  the  country,  Parliament  was  dissolved  on 
27th  of  April, — his  Majesty  "  being  anxious  to  recur  to 
the  sense  of  his  people,  while  the  events  which  have 
recently  taken  place  are  fresh  in  their  recollection." l 

Thus,  within  the  brief  period  of  six  months,  the 
unprecedented  thing  was  seen  of  two  general  elections — 
or  three  general  elections  in  five  years — enough  almost 
one  would  have  thought  to  have  satisfied  the  advocates 
of  "  Annual  Parliaments ; "  but  annual  Parliaments 
without  an  extension  of  the  franchise  would  have  been 
no  help  towards  a  better  state  of  things. 

In  many  constituencies  this  appeal  to  the  people 
was  of  a  specially  dubious  sort,  for  the  newspapers  of 
the  time  were  full  of  advertisements  for  or  of  seats. 

"  A  Borough.  A  gentleman  of  fortune  and  respect- 
ability will  hear  of  one  by  immediately  applying  to.": 

"  Seat  in  a  Certain  Assembly.  Any  gentleman  having 
the  disposal  of  a  Close  One  may  apply  to,  etc.  etc." 3 

"  Dissolution.  Any  gentleman  who  has  it  in  his 
power  to  secure  Interest  for  a  Seat  in  a  certain  Assembly 
will  address  a  line  without  delay,  etc.  etc." 4 

In  such  places  the  Platform  was  not  likely  to 
be  had  recourse  to,  or  to  be  of  more  effect  than  Cob- 
bett's  experiences  at  Honiton.  Although  a  general 
election  had  taken  place  only  six  months  previously, 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  ix.  p.  3  Morning  Post,  2d  May  1807. 
552.                                                                  4  Ibid.  8th  May  1807. 

2  Morning  Post,  1st  May  1807. 


CHAP,  vni         THE  GENERAL  ELECTION  OF  1807  323 

the  political  energies  of  the  constituencies  were  not 
exhausted,  and  there  were  contests  in  9  counties  in 
England,  and  51  boroughs,  or  a  total  of  60,  as  against 
51  in  1806.  One  at  least  was  vigorous  enough,  for 
in  Sussex  occurred  "  the  most  furious  contest  that 
ever  took  place  in  the  county."  l  .  .  .  The  votes  of 
one  of  the  members  in  favour  of  the  slave  trade 
having  given  great  offence  to  a  large  number  of  the 
freeholders,  especially  to  the  dissenters.  .  .  .  For  fifteen 
days  the  greatest  exertions  were  made  by  the  friends  of 
botn  parties."  At  length,  on  the  last  day,  the  popular 
candidate  was  beaten  by  a  small  majority. 

The  appeal  to  the  people,  or  rather  to  the  very 
limited  number  of  electors  who,  in  the  King's  phraseology, 
constituted  "  his  people,"  resulted  in  a  majority  for  the 
new  Ministry,  and  the  Tories  were  once  more  placed  in 
authority  with  an  enormous  majority.2  For  the  following 
twenty-three  years,  uninterrupted  by  a  single  break, 
that  autocratic  party  held  the  reins  of  power,  and  the 
Government  of  the  country  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
men  who  most  hated  and  dreaded  the  Platform.  No 
wonder  then  that  the  efforts  of  the  people  to  make  the 
Platform  a  power  in  the  State  were  discouraged  and 
checked  in  every  possible  way,  and  on  every  possible 
occasion.  For  that  prolonged  period  the  people  had  to 
continue  the  fight  for  freedom  of  speech,  and  freedom 
of  meeting,  and  for  a  better  and  more  equitable  system 
of  Government ;  the  years  were  years  of  probation,  the 
struggle  a  long  course  of  severe  discipline ;  but  the 
triumph  when  it  came,  as  it  ultimately  did,  was  all  the 
greater  and  more  complete,  and  was  worth  the  labour, 
and  trials,  and  sufferings  which  had  been  endured. 

1  The  Parliamentary  History  of  the  -  On  the  first  great  trial  of  strength 
County  of  Sussex,  p.  3,  by  W.  D.  the  Government  had  350  supporters 
Cooper.  against  155  opponents. 


324         THE  PLATFORM:    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

The  new  Parliament  met  on  the  22d  of  June  1807. 

It  is  somewhat  remarkable  that  with  the  growing- 
intelligence  and  education  of  the  people,  and  the  expira- 
tion of  the  most  restrictive  portion  of  the  prohibitive 
laws,  public  meetings  had  not  already  been  more 
numerous.  The  explanation  is  to  be  found  partly  in 
the  feeling  of  hopelessness  resulting  from  previous 
disappointments,  partly  in  the  absorption  of  the  country 
in  the  war,  and  partly  in  the  want  of  leaders.  Another 
reason  is  also  given  by  Lord  Stanhope  in  a  letter  to 
Major  Cartwright  written  in  1805.1  "I  have  seen  too 
much  not  to  be  thoroughly  sick  of  the  old  dull  road  of 
meetings  of  freeholders  convened  by  the  aristocracy," — a 
letter  which  clearly  showed  the  disinclination  of  some 
of  the  leaders  to  attempt  a  revival  of  county  meetings. 
Fox,  "  the  man  of  the  people,"  was  no  longer  alive  to 
inspire  them,  and  no  great  popular  leader  had  arisen 
who  could  at  all  supply  the  place  he  had  held.  A  change, 
however,  was  about  to  take  place. 

The  discreditable  transactions  in  which  Lord  Melville 
was  concerned  had  awakened  the  Platform  into  life  ; 
the  elections  of  1806  and  1807  gave  it  additional 
impulse,  and  other  events  soon  followed  to  quicken  its 
attention  and  give  it  occupation. 

Hence,  from  this  time  on,  we  find  the  practice  of 
holding  meetings  being  revived,  and  of  recourse  being- 
had  to  the  Platform  for  the  expression  of  opinions  on  the 
various  events  of  the  day.  It  is  noticeable  that  the 
scope  of  the  meetings  thus  reviving,  or,  in  other  words, 
the  subjects  treated  of  at  them,  assumed  a  wider  range 
than  ever  before,  showing  clearly  how  far  more  keenly 
the  people  were  becoming  interested  in  political  events, 
and  how  far  more  closely  and  jealously  they  watched 

1  See  Life  of  Major  Cartwright,  by  his  niece,  vol.  i.  p.  327. 


CHAP,  vni          INCENTIVES  TO  THE  PLATFORM  325 

the  acts  of  the  Government.  The  old  subject  of  Parlia- 
mentary reform  once  more  broke  in  on  the  public  ear. 
On  the  10th  July  1807  a  meeting  of  freemen  and 
freeholders  was  held  at  Bristol  in  favour  of  inquiring 
into  the  present  state  of  the  elective  franchise,  and 
Henry  Hunt,1  now  beginning  his  political  career,  was  in 
the  chair ;  but  the  meeting  wras  little  more  than  a 
reminder  that  the  subject  was  still  there,  and  still 
to  be  settled,  and  no  other  places  followed  Bristol's 
example. 

Early  in  1808  more  urgent  and  formidable  in- 
centives to  public  meetings  began  to  show  themselves — 
want  and  distress.  The  fearful  cost  of  the  never-ending 
war,  but  above  all,  the  high  prices  of  food,  injuriously 
affected  nearly  every  class,  but  fell  with  direst  and 
most  calamitous  effect  on  the  poorer  classes.  Those  at 
Bolton  in  their  distress  met  and  adopted  a  Petition 
which  was  presented  to  Parliament,  setting  forth  that 
the  petitioners  were  suffering  "great  privations  on 
account  of  the  depressed  state  of  manufactures  "  ~  that 
the  wages  of  labour  were  reduced,  that  thousands 
were  in  the  most  extreme  distress,  that  numbers 
were  in  absolute  want  of  the  necessaries  of  life ;  that 
they  were  of  opinion  that  the  continuance  of  the  war 
was  the  cause  of  their  sufferings,  and  they  prayed  for 
peace.  Other  places  followed  the  example  ;  numerous 
meetings  were  held,  and  numerous  Petitions  signed. 

In  Manchester  the  hardships  of  the  times  led  to 
a  contest  between  the  weavers  and  their  employers 
regarding  wages,  and  meetings  were  held  on  the  24th 
and  25th  May  in  St.  George's  Fields  to  promote  a  Bill 
for  fixing  a  minimum  rate  of  wages.  The  meetings 

1  See  Memoirs  of  Henry  Hunt,  by  -  Parliamentary  Delates,  vol.   x.  p. 

himself,  vol.  ii.   p.  275  ;  see  also  Cob-       692,  22d  February  1808. 
bett's  Political  Register,  vol.  xii.  p.  210. 


326         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

"  awakened  the  apprehensions  of  the  authorities  of  the 
town,"  and  on  the  latter  day  the  Riot  Act  was  read,  the 
military  were  ordered  to  disperse  the  meeting,  one 
weaver  was  killed,  and  several  wounded.  It  was  a 
pitiable  scene,  not  one  for  which  the  Platform  was 
responsible,  rather  one  for  which  the  absence  of  the 
Platform  was  accountable,  for  the  guides  and  in- 
structors of  the  people  were  gone. 

"Where  were  the  men,"  says  Prentice  in  his 
History  of  Manchester,  "who  could  have  reasoned 
with  the  weavers  on  the  causes  of  their  distress  and  the 
remedies  which  they  ought  to  have  demanded  ?  Some 
were  frightened  out  of  the  field  by  the  prosecutions  of 
1794 ;  some,  shocked  by  the  atrocities  perpetrated 
during  the  French  Revolution,  had  lost  their  sympathies 
with  the  multitude,  and  regarded  a  movement  for 
increased  wages  as  the  precursor  of  a  demand  for 
democratic  government,  and  many  had  sunk  into  a 
hopeless  and  selfish  indifference." l 

In  the  following  year  other  events  gave  a  con- 
siderable impetus  to  the  expression  of  public  feelings, 
case  after  case  coming  to  light  of  shameful  misconduct 
on  the  part  of  some  of  the  very  highest  officials  of  the 
State,  and  triumphantly  justifying  charges  which 
hitherto  had  been  indignantly  denied  as  the  malicious 
fabrications  of  Jacobinical  revolutionists. 

The  first  disclosure  concerned  no  less  a  personage 
than  the  Duke  of  York,  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
Army,  and  a  son  of  the  King.  Again  was  the  House  of 
Commons  the  scene  of  a  sensational  indictment.  On 
the  27th  of  January  Colonel  Wardle  of  the  Militia 
brought  before  it  a  series  of  allegations  against  the 

1  Historical  Sketches  and  Personal  Recollections  of  Manchester,  by  Archibald 
Prentice,  p.  33. 


CHAP,  vin  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK  SCANDAL  327 

Duke  of  York,  directly  charging  him  with  corruption  in 
the  appointment  to  Commissions  in  the  Army,  in  the 
regulation  of  exchanges,  and  in  the  filling  up  of  vacancies, 
and  he  declared  that  unless  the  system  of  corruption 
which  had  so  long  prevailed  in  the  military  department 
should  be  done  away  with,  this  country  might  fall  an 
easy  prey  to  the  enemy.1  The  scandal  was  heightened 
by  the  fact  that  the  other  person  involved  in  the  charge 
was  the  mistress  of  the  Duke,  a  certain  Mrs.  Clarke, 
the  Duke  himself  being  a  married  man.  The  Govern- 
ment, for  once  unable  to  meet  the  charge  with  mere 
denial,  was  compelled  to  recognise  the  necessity  of  the 
allegations  being  inquired  into  fully,  and  the  inquiry 
was  undertaken  by  a  Committee  of  the  whole  House  of 
Commons. 

The  inquiry  lasted  seven  weeks,  and  the  attention  of 
the  public  was  riveted  on  the  proceedings  in  the  House. 
At  the  end  of  that  time  the  House  passed  a  resolution 
by  364  votes  to  123,  or  by  a  majority  of  241,  that  there 
was  no  ground  for  the  charges  made  against  the  Duke 
in  the  execution  of  his  official  duties  as  Commander-in- 
Chief ; 2  but  two  days  after  this  the  Duke  resigned  his 
office,  and  the  House,  with  a  contradictoriness,  strangely 
at  variance  with  its  previous  resolution,  passed  one  that, 
in  consequence  of  this  resignation,  the  House  did  not 
think  it  necessary  to  proceed  any  further  into  the  con- 
duct of  his  royal  Highness,  as  for  as  that  evidence 
related  to  him. 

Scarcely  was  the  inquiry  over  before  the  Platform 
seized  on  the  case,  and  meeting  after  meeting  was  held 
throughout  the  country  approving  of  Colonel  Wardle's 
action,  condemning  the  Ministry,  and,  in  some  instances, 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  1809,  vol.  -  Ibid.  vol.  xiii.  p.  639. 

xii.  p.  179,  etc. 


328         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

asking  for  Parliamentary  reform.1  At  Westminster 
10,000  persons  met  and  passed  resolutions.  They 
declared  that  they  had  long  been  aware  of  the  exist- 
ence of  scandalous  and  corrupt  practices  in  various 
departments  of  the  State,  and  that  the  fact  had  now 
been  made  manifest  to  every  part  of  the  United 
Kingdom. 

They  thanked  Colonel  Wardle,  and  expressed  the 
hope  that  the  discoveries  made  ought  to  animate  the 
people  to  prosecute  inquiry  and  reform  in  all  the 
departments  of  the  State. 

The  Liverymen  of  London,  in  meeting  assembled, 
declared  that  it  had  lately  been  proved  that  abuses  of  a 
most  corrupt  nature  and  ruinous  tendency  have  existed, 
and  still  exist,  in  various  branches  of  the  administration 
of  public  affairs. 

The  freeholders  of  Middlesex  met ;  Hertfordshire, 
Huntingdonshire,  Cornwall,  Wilts,  Herefordshire,  Hamp- 
shire, and  several  other  counties,  had  county  meetings ; 
5000  persons  met  at  Sheffield,  and  large  numbers 
at  other  cities  and  towns.  The  meeting  of  Wiltshire 
was  "  the  first  public  meeting  which,  within  the  memory 
of  man,  was  ever  held  in  the  county  for  any  other 
purpose  but  that  of  an  election." 2 

The  meeting  of  Hampshire  was  attended  by  some 
1800  to  2000  persons,  and  consisted  chiefly  of  the  prin- 
cipal tradesmen  and  yeomanry  of  the  county. 

"  We  saw  none  of  that  rabble,"  wrote  Cobbett,  "  that 
follow  the  heels  of  an  election  candidate  for  the  sake  of 
a  little  dirty  drink ;  we  heard  no  senseless  bawling  on 
the  one  side  or  the  other ;  no  squads  of  hirelings  to  hiss 
or  to  applaud."  It  was  "an  assembly  of  sober,  intelli- 

1  An  account  of  many  of  these  meet-          2  Memoirs  of  Henry  Hunt,  vol.  ii.  p. 
ings   is  given    in   Cobbett's    Political      368. 
Register  for  1809,  vol.  xv. 


CHAP,  vni  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK  SCANDAL  329 

gent  men  of  property — a  fair  representation  of  the  sense 
and  the  integrity  of  the  county."  l 

Such  an  awakening  of  the  country,  such  an  instan- 
taneous appeal  to  the  Platform,  had  never  yet  been 
witnessed.  How  real  that  awakening  was  can  be  judged 
from  a  letter  by  Cobbett  "  to  the  Independent  People  of 
Hampshire,"  in  which  he  said :  "  The  reason  why  your 
voice  has  heretofore  not  been  heard  is  this :  that  you 
had  no  inclination  to  attend  at  county  meetings.  The 
few  who  did  attend  saw  that  the  object  was  merely  a 
party  one ;  that  no  good  purpose  was  answered  by  an 
attendance  ;  that  a  set  of  resolutions,  ready  cut  and  dry, 
were  passed  without  opposition  ;  that  the  audience  con- 
sisted upon  one  occasion  of  the  slaves  of  men  in  power ; 
and  upon  the  next  occasion  of  the  slaves  of  men  who 
wanted  to  get  into  power ;  that,  in  fact,  you  were  only 
to  give  your  voice  for  what  one  party  or  the  other  party 
sent  down  from  London  to  be  passed,  and  to  be  sent 
back  again,  as  being  the  decision  of  the  county  of 
Hants,  when  it  was  no  more  the  decision  of  the  real 
people  of  the  county  than  it  was  the  decision  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  moon.  No  wonder  that  such  meet- 
ings had  fallen  into  contempt.  The  tradesmen  and 
yeomen  of  the  county  despised  the  imposture ;  and  it 
did  not  occur  to  them  to  take  the  trouble  of  exposing  it. 

"Recent  events — quite  sufficient  for  the  purpose 
indeed — have  roused  us.  They  have  brought  us  to- 
gether from  all  parts  of  the  county  ;  made  us  acquainted 
with  one  another ;  produced  an  interchange  of  friend- 
ship ;  and  do  very  fairly  promise  to  make  us  formidable 
to  any  man,  or  set  of  men,  who  shall  dare  attempt  again 
to  consider  us  as  men  of  straw." 

How  considerable  an  event  this  revival  of  the  Plat- 

1  Cobbett's  Political  Ilcyistcr,  vol.  xv.  p.  644.      -  Ibid.,  May  1S09,  p.  674. 


330         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

form  was  is  seen  from  an  article  of  his  in  the  Political 
Register.1 

"The  excellent  disposition  which  has  been  excited 
and  called  forth  by  the  disclosures,  is  manifesting  itself 
in  every  part  of  the  country,  and  this  is  the  really 
valuable  part  of  the  thing.  It  is  not  the  dismission  of 
the  Duke  of  York  that  any  sensible  man  cares  much 
about.  It  is  the  light,  the  blessed  light  that  has  been 
let  in  upon  a  long  benighted  nation,  by  the  inquiry 
that  has  taken  place.  .  .  .  Even  the  provincial  papers, 
so  long  the  vehicles  of  dull  repetition,  of  borrowed  and 
insipid  reflection,  have  now  assumed  animation  and 
mind,  have  now  begun  to  have  the  breath  of  life  in  their 
nostrils,  and  to  indicate  the  possession  of  intelligent 
souls  ;  ...  at  last  the  people  have  been  roused,  beyond 
the  power  of  all  the  soporifics  in  the  world,  to  a  sense  of 
the  existence  of  a  system  of  corruption  more  extensive 
than  they  could  with  reason  have  supposed  to  exist." 

Hot  upon  this  discreditable  disclosure  followed  some 
discreditable  disclosures  concerning  Lord  Castlereagh, 
the  Secretary  for  War,  who  was  charged  with  having 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  Lord  Clancarty  the  nomination 
of  a  writership  in  India,  for  the  purpose  of  enabling 
Lord  Clancarty  thereby  to  procure  a  seat  in  the  House 
of  Commons.2  The  matter  was  brought  before  the 
House  of  Commons.  Lord  Castlereagh  acknowledged 
the  transaction,  but  said  he  did  not  think  any  "  turpi- 
tude "  attached  to  it,  and  he  disavowed  an  intention  of 
influencing  elections  corruptly. 

Very  little  later  another  charge  was  brought  against 
Lord  Castlereagh,  and  this  time  Mr.  Perceval,  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  was  involved.3  The 

1  April  1809,  p.  491.  3  llth    May    1809,   ibid.   vol.    xiv. 

2  25th   April   1809,    farliamentanj      p.  486. 
Debates,  vol.  xiv.  p.  203. 


CHAP,  vin         SALE  OF  PARLIAMENTARY  SEATS  331 

charge  was  that  of  selling  a  seat  in  the  House  of 
Commons.  "  I  affirm,"  said  Mr.  Madocks,  who  brought 
the  charge  forward,  "  that  Mr.  Dick  purchased  a  seat  in 
this  House  (at  the  cost  of  £5000)  for  the  borough  of 
Cashel,  through  the  agency  of  the  Hon.  H.  Wellesley, 
who  acted  for  and  on  behalf  of  the  Treasury  ;  that 
upon  a  recent  question  of  the  last  importance,  when 
Mr.  Dick  had  determined  to  vote  according  to  his  con- 
science, the  noble  Lord  (Castlereagh)  did  intimate  to 
that  gentleman  the  necessity  of  either  his  voting  with 
the  Government  or  resigning  his  seat ;  and  that  Mr. 
Dick,  sooner  than  vote  against  principle,  did  make 
choice  of  the  latter  alternative.  To  this  transaction  I 
charge  the  right  honourable  gentleman  (Mr.  Perceval) 
as  being  privy,  and  having  connived  at  it ; "  and  he 
moved  that  the  charge  should  be  heard  at  the  bar  of 
the  House.  Both  the  Ministers  charged  postponed 
their  defence,  but  so  anxious  was  the  House  to  shield 
them  that  a  vote  was  passed  by  310  to  85  refusing  to 
take  any  action  on  the  charge.  Refuse  the  House 
might  to  sanction  any  investigation  into  particular 
allegations,  but  to  conceal  their  general  iniquities  in 
these  matters  was  beyond  its  power,  for  the  practice  of 
buying  and  selling  seats  was  notorious. 

"  A  bold  petitioner  has  told  us,"  said  Mr.  Curwen  in 
the  House,  "  '  that  the  seats  are  bought  and  sold  in  this 
House  like  the  stalls  in  Smithfield  ; '  and  I  may  remark 
that  to  this  insult  the  House  thought  fit  to  submit  in 
silence.  .  .  .  But,  sir.  if  I  needed  any  proof  of  the 
existence  of  these  abuses,  besides  their  notoriety.  I 
might  refer  to  the  conduct  of  the  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer  (Perceval),  witnessed  by  the  whole  House. 
In  a  Bill  he  has  introduced  to  stop  the  sale  of  places, 
etc.,  he  consented  to  accept  a  clause  inflicting  penalties 


332         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"  on  the  traffic  of  seats  in  this  House.  Here,  sir,  is  an 
avowal  of  the  existence  of  the  abuse." l 

And  no  less  a  person  than  the  Speaker  of  the  House, 
speaking  in  the  Committee  on  a  Bill  introduced  by  Mr. 
Curwen,  said :  "  The  question  now  before  us  is  no  less 
than  this — whether  the  seats  in  this  House  shall  be 
henceforth  publicly  saleable  ?  A  proposition,  at  the 
sound  of  which  our  ancestors  would  have  startled  with 
indignation ;  but  a  practice,  which  in  these  days  and 
within  these  walls,  in  utter  oblivion  of  every  former 
maxim  and  feeling  of  Parliament,  has  been  avowed  and 
justified."2 

The  impression  which  all  these  disclosures  created, 
following  so  quickly  on  each  other,  was  very  great,  and 
men's  minds  were  turned  more  than  ever  to  the 
necessity  of  Parliamentary  reform.  It  was  evident 
that  those  in  whose  hands  was  the  government  of  the 
country  were  taking  better  care  of  their  own  interests 
than  those  of  the  country.  The  disclosures  shook  the 
public  confidence  even  in  the  most  exalted  public  men, 
and  they  intensified  the  desire  for  such  changes  as  would 
render  such  malpractices  impossible. 

The  revival  of  the  Platform  in  the  first  decade  of 
this  century  was  due  to  the  frauds,  abuses,  and  cor- 
ruption which  had  been  laid  bare,  and  was  a  protest, 
almost  a  revolt,  against  the  misdeeds  of  the  Govern- 
ment and  its  sheltering  majority  in  Parliament. 

Nor  was  the  action  of  the  Platform  altogether  with- 
out effect  on  the  Government.  At  any  rate  it  stung 
them,  as  is  evident  from  a  petulant  speech  of  Canning, 
then  Foreign  Secretary.  He  said  :  "  The  House  were 
told  to  take  care  how  they  acted  in  contradiction  of 
the  sense  of  the  people.  But  how  and  where  was 

1  4th  May  1809,  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xix.  p.  357.      2  Ibid.  p.  837. 


CHAP,  vin  THE  CAUSES  OF  THE  REVIVAL  333 

the  sense  to  be  ascertained  ?  Was  it  in  the  Commons 
House  of  Parliament,  or  in  those  meetings  which 
were  held  to  canvass  the  conduct  of  that  House  ? 
Was  the  House  to  listen  only  to  those  among  them  who 
came  reeking  from  those  meetings,  and  who  would  incul- 
cate on  the  House  the  lessons  which  they  received  and 
brought  from  such  a  school  ?  .  .  .  With  respect  to  the 
scheme  which  was  hatching  in  these  meetings,  no  man 
could  be  in  the  dark.  We  had  to  guard  against  the 
machinations  of  dangerous  demagogues ;  at  least  when 
such  meetings  presumed  to  bring  the  conduct  of  that 
House  to  account,  that  House  had  an  equal  right  to 
inquire  into  and  animadvert  upon  the  tendency  of  their 
conduct."  He  called  upon  the  House  "  to  make  a  deter- 
mined stand  against  the  encroachments  of  the  factious." l 

Perceval  also  (the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer),  on 
the  4th  May,  referred  to  speeches  and  resolutions  out  of 
doors,  and  complained  of  the  attempt  "  To  delude  the 
public  by  statements  mischievous,  false,  and  fallacious, 
which  were  the  true  characteristics  of  Jacobinism, 
and  to  inflame  the  public  mind  with  exaggerated 
pictures  of  abuse,  and  imaginary  and  impracticable 
ideas  of  reform.2 

"  If  any  member  of  that  House,  not  venturing  to 
make  such  delusive  statements  in  his  place,  where  they 
might  be  met  and  refuted,  should  think  proper  to  repeat 
them  in  other  places,  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  appre- 
ciate the  mischief  that  might  be  the  result.  The 
language  held  to  the  public  in  these  places  was,  that  the 
House  of  Commons  was  a  sink  of  corruption,  and  that 
that  House  was  the  only  place  wherein  the  sense  of  the 
people  was  treated  with  contempt." 

In  the  country  too   the  subject   of  Parliamentary 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xiv.  p.  523.  2  Ibid.  p.  372. 


334         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  11 

reform  was  evidently  what  was  uppermost  in  men's 
minds,  as  was  apparent  from  the  resolutions  which  were 
passed  at  the  meetings  in  condemnation  of  the  Duke  of 
York's  conduct.  As  an  example,  the  resolution  passed 
at  a  county  meeting  at  Bodmin  in  May  may  be  quoted. 
It  was  then  resolved  "  that  a  reform  in  the  representa- 
tion of  the  people  in  the  Commons  House  of  Parliament 
is  the  only  effective  corrective  of  existing  abuses,  and 
that  the  only  security  against  future  corruption  will  be 
the  restoring  to  the  people  that  share  of  the  elective 
franchise  which  the  public  good  requires,  and  to  which 
they  are  entitled  by  the  principles  of  the  British  Con- 
stitution."1 

Several  gentlemen  "wrho  had  a  deep  interest  in  the 
numerous  boroughs  in  the  county "  were  present,  but, 
notwithstanding  their  opposition,  the  resolution  was 
carried  by  a  majority  of  50  to  1. 

The  Platform  was  given  some  further  encouragement 
in  this  matter  by  the  question  of  Parliamentary  reform 
being  raised  in  Parliament  itself.  Early  in  May  Mr. 
Curwen  brought  in  a  Bill  with  the  view  of  checking 
bribery,  and  imposing  penalties  on  the  sale  of  seats  in 
Parliament.  The  Bill  did  not  interfere  with  or  profess 
to  disturb  Parliamentary  representation,  but  it  dealt  with 
the  more  discreditable  practices  of  Parliamentary  elections, 
dragged  them  into  the  glare  of  day,  and  kept  the  public 
attention  fixed  on  them  for  the  greater  part  of  the 
session.  In  his  introductory  speech  Mr.  Curwen  gave 
a  most  valuable  summary  of  the  character  of  the  meet- 
ings which  had  taken  place  in  connection  with  the 
discreditable  transactions  in  which  the  Duke  of  York  had 
figured.  He  said  :  "  It  is  well  worth  our  attention  to 
examine  how  the  meetings  have  been  composed,  as  well 

1  Cobbett's  Political  Register,  vol.  xv.  p.  825. 


CHAP,  vin  MR.  CURWEN'S  REFORM  BILL.  335 

as  the  language  in  which  their  resolutions  have  been 
worded.  It  will  be  found  that  they  have  consisted  of 
the  respectable  part  of  the  community — of  men  attached 
to  the  Constitution,  firm  supporters  of  the  throne,  not 
hostile  to  the  administration  of  the  right  honourable 
gentleman,  or  friendly  to  those  opposed  to  him.  In 
their  expressions  will  be  found  nothing  to  justify  alarm, 
except  in  the  minds  of  those  who  profit  by  abuses. 
Invariably  they  point  at  these  abuses,  and  at  the  defects 
in  this  House,  as  their  source. 

"  By  timely  reform  you  will  turn  the  tide  of  popular 
feeling,  and  convert  it  into  increased  affection  and 
attachment  to  the  Constitution.  It  is  true  dignity  to 
resist  when  right  and  justice  are  on  our  side ;  but  it  is 
obstinacy  and  madness  to  identify  our  existence  with 
abuses  which  we  can  neither  deny  nor  defend." l 

The  argument  did  not  commend  itself  to  all. 

Mr.  Windham  opposed  the  Bill.  "  It  had  for  many 
years  been  his  opinion  that  the  House  ought  strenuously 
to  oppose,  as  dangerous  and  mad,  any  proposal  for 
Parliamentary  reform." 

The  Government,  however,  were  wiser,  and  under 
the  stress  of  Platform  agitation,  took  the  Bill  under 
their  wing,  but  altered  it  considerably,  and  then  allowed 
it  to  become  law. 

Before  the  close  of  the  session  the  subject  of  the 
reform  of  Parliamentary  representation  was  brought  be- 
fore Parliament  by  Sir  Francis  Burdett,  who  offered  to  the 
House  a  plan  of  reform,  not,  he  said,  for  its  "  immediate 
adoption,  but  for  its  future  consideration." 2  But  the 
House  preferred  another  course  not  mentioned  by  Sir 
Francis  Burdett — namely,  its  immediate  rejection,  and 
rejected  it  straight  off. 

1  Hansard,  vol.  xiv.  p.  355,  1809.  -  Ibid.  p.  1041,  15th  June. 


336         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

The  growing  irritation  of  the  Government  proves 
conclusively,  I  think,  that  public  opinion,  as  expressed 
by  the  Platform,  was  becoming  more  powerful  and 
making  its  pressure  increasingly  felt.  In  a  debate 
which  took  place  quite  early  in  the  following  session l 
(29th  January)  on  a  breach  of  privilege  as  to  the  form 
of  publication  of  certain  lists  of  how  members  had 
voted,  one  of  the  members,  Mr.  Ponsonby,  had  taken 
occasion  to  remark  that  "  there  was  one  thing  which 
gave  him  great  satisfaction  by  the  debate,  and  that  was 
the  particular  anxiety  which  was,  at  that  time,  manifested 
about  the  opinion  of  their  constituents."  The  Prime 
Minister  (Perceval),  with  evident  irritation,  replied  that 
"  He  did  not  know  what  there  was  in  the  present  state 
of  affairs  that  should  make  it  matter  of  so  much  exulta- 
tion to  the  right  honourable  gentleman,  that  members 
should  be  anxious  about  the  opinions  of  their  con- 
stituents, nor  did  he  know  why  they  should  be  more 
anxious  on  that  subject  at  present  than  at  other 
times." 

But  their  rising  wrath  and  increasing  vindictiveness 
was  shown  still  more  in  another  matter  which  occurred 
about  this  time,  and  which  was  connected  with  that  to 
them  most  detested  of  institutions,  the  Platform.  There 
was  in  existence  at  this  time  a  certain  debating  Society 
called  "The  British  Forum,"  of  which  Mr.  John  Gale 
Jones,  who  is  already  familiar  to  us,  was  president,  a 
not  very  formidable  or  influential  institution.2  It  held 
its  meetings  in  a  room  in  Bedford  Street,  Covent 
Garden,  which  was  hired  one  evening  in  each  week  by 
Jones  and  some  three  or  four  others,  and  the  profits 
derived  from  the  admission  money  were  shared  among 
them.  "  Debating  Societies,"  says  Place,  "  were  at  one 

1  See  Parliamentary  Debates,  1810,  vol.  xv.  p.  216.        2  Ibid.  vol.  xv.  p.  480. 


CHAP,  vin     THE  BRITISH  FORUM  DEBATING  SOCIETY      337 

time  much  more  numerous  and  better  attended,  but 
they  had  been  gradually  falling  into  disrepute,  and  at 
this  time  none  but  this  existed,  and  even  here  the 
attendance  was  by  no  means  numerous," — sometimes 
only  Jones  and  his  friends.1  Public  notices  were  usually 
issued  of  its  proceedings.  On  a  particular  occasion  a 
certain  debate  took  place  there,  which  was  thus  referred 
to  in  a  public  notice  :  "  Last  Monday,  after  an  inter- 
esting discussion,  it  was  unanimously  decided  that  the 
enforcement  of  the  Standing  Orders,  by  shutting  out 
strangers  from  the  ffallerv  of  the  House  of  Commons, 

O  O  */ 

ought  to  be  censured  as  an  insidious  and  ill-timed  attack 
upon  the  liberty  of  the  Press,  as  tending  to  aggravate 
the  discontents  of  the  people,  and  to  render  their 
representatives  objects  of  jealous  suspicion."  And  this 
subject  being  too  interesting  a  one  to  drop,  a  further 
debate  was  fixed.  The  notice  ran  as  follows  :  "  Windham 
and  Yorke.  British  Forum,  33  Bedford  Street,  Monday, 
19th  February.  Question  (for  debate),  Which  was  a 
greater  outrage  on  the  public  feeling — Mr.  Yorke's 
enforcement  of  the  standing  order  to  exclude  strangers 
from  the  House  of  Commons,  or  Mr.  Windhani's  recent 
attack  upon  the  liberty  of  the  Press  ?  .  .  .  The  great 
anxiety  manifested  by  the  public  at  this  critical  period 
to  become  acquainted  with  the  proceedings  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  to  ascertain  who  were  the 
authors  and  promoters  of  the  late  calamitous  expedition 
to  the  Scheldt,  together  with  the  violent  attacks  made 
by  Mr.  Windham  on  the  newspaper  reporters  (whom  he 
represented  as  bankrupts,  lottery  office-keepers,  foot- 
men, and  decayed  tradesmen),  have  stirred  up  the  public 
feeling,  and  excited  universal  attention.  The  present 
question  is  therefore  brought  forward  as  a  comparative 

1  Place,  MSS.,  27.850,  p.  156. 


338         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

inquiry,  and  may  be  justly  expected  to  furnish  a 
contested  and  interesting  debate." 

Mr.  Yorke  (First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty)  brought  the 
subject  under  the  notice  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
declared  it  was  a  gross  violation  of  their  privileges,1  and 
the  printer  was  ordered  to  attend.  He  attended  and 
gave  up  the  name  of  the  author  of  the  placard  as  John 
Gale  Jones. 

"  Jones,"  says  Place,  "  was  always  a  poor  emaciated 
crazy-looking  creature,  possessed  of  considerable  talents, 
but  as  devoid  of  judgment  as  any  man  could  well  be. 
He  had,  on  former  occasions,  shown  a  want  of  personal 
courage." :  On  this  occasion  he  attended  and  apologised, 
but  it  was  determined  he  should  be  made  an  example 
of;  it  was  resolved  that  he  had  been  guilty  of  a  gross 
breach  of  the  privileges  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
he  was  committed  to  Newgate. 

A  short  time  after,  Sir  F.  Burdett,  the  popular 
member  for  Westminster,  issued  a  letter  to  his  con- 
stituents declaring  the  committal  of  Gale  Jones  to 
have  been  illegal,  stating  a  long  argument  to  prove 
its  illegality,  and  denying  the  power  of  the  House  of 
Commons  to  imprison  the  people  of  England.3 

This,  after  a  long  debate,  was  adjudged  by  the 
House  of  Commons  to  be  a  libellous  and  scandalous 
paper,  and  a  warrant  was  issued  for  the  committal  of 
Sir  F.  Burdett  to  the  Tower.  Serious  riots  took  place 
on  his  arrest,  and  his  conveyance  to  the  Tower ;  the 
military  was  called  out  to  quell  them,  and  lives  were 
lost.  Popular  feeling  was  greatly  excited  by  these 

1  This  same  Mr.  Yorke,  soon  after,  to  the  freeholders,  but  was  hooted  out 

had  a  valuable  sinecure  given  to  him.  of   the    county.      See    Place,     JISS., 

On  accepting  it  he  vacated  his  seat,  27,850,  p.  158. 
and  at  the  end  of  twenty  years,  in          2  Ibid. 

which  he  had  represented  the  county          3  See   Parliamentary   Debates,    vol. 

of  Cambridge,  again  presented  himself  xvi.  p.  137. 


CHAP,  viii     GOVERNMENT  AND  DEBATING  SOCIETIES       339 

events ;  and  the  overbearing  intolerance  of  the  Govern- 
ment in  endeavouring  to  suppress  an  insignificant  de- 
bating Society  recoiled  on  themselves  in  an  outburst 
of  Platform  activity,  and  in  giving  the  Platform  the 
greatest  impetus  it  could  well  receive.  On  the  17th 
April  a  .  meeting  of  the  electors  of  Westminster  was 
held,  "  probably  the  largest  ever  held  in  Westminster," 
and  a  "  Petition  and  Remonstrance  addressed  to  the 
House  of  Commons  was  presented,  asking  that  their 
representative  might  be  restored  to  them,  and  that  the 
House  would  take  the  state  of  the  representation  of  the 
people  into  serious  consideration." 

The  Petition  was  presented  after  a  long  discussion, 
and  laid  on  the  table. 

Place,  who  so  often  takes  us  behind  the  scenes, 
says  :  "It  was  a  matter  of  indifference  to  a  large  body 
of  the  electors  what  the  House  did  with  the  "Petition, 
and  many  wished  the  House  to  reject  it,  as  then  another 
meeting  would  be  held.  What  was  most  desired  was 
a  wrangle  in  the  House.  Everybody  knew  that,  so  far 
as  the  House  alone  was  concerned,  it  was  useless  to 
petition  it ;  no  Petition  had  ever  been  entertained  as 
it  should  have  been  ;  none  had  ever  been  taken  into 
consideration  ;  no  part  of  the  prayer  of  any  Petition 
had  ever  been  granted.  But  the  House  was  the  best 
vehicle  through,  or  by  which  the  people  could  be 
addressed,  and  a  wrangle  in  the  House  when  reported 
in  the  newspapers  was  sure  to  fix  the  attention  of  the 
people  on  our  proceedings." 

Shortly  afterwards,  on  the  26th  April,  a  meet- 
ing of  the  freeholders  of  Middlesex — never  backward 
where  liberty  was  threatened — was  held,  and  a  Petition 
for  Sir  Francis  Burdett's  release  was  also  adopted. 

1  Place,  MSS.,  27,850,  p.  218. 


340         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  11 

The  Petition  was  outspoken.  The  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer  declared  that  he  conceived  it  impossible  to 
consider  the  Petition  in  any  other  light  than  that  of 
a  deliberate  and  unparalleled  insult  to  the  House,1  and 
moved  that  it  be  not  received,  and  it  was  not  received.2 
A  "  Petition  and  Remonstrance  "  was  also  adopted  by  the 
Lord  Mayor,  Aldermen,  and  Livery  of  the  city  of 
London  at  a  meeting  in  the  Guildhall  on  the  4th  May. 
Its  rejection  was  moved  by  Mr.  Secretary  Ryder,  and  it 
was  rejected.3 

Meetings  were  held  throughout  the  country.  The 
Platform  was  soon  actively  at  work,  and  Petitions  flowed 
in.4  Worcester,  Canterbury,  Hull,  Nottingham,  Coventry, 
Sheffield,  Berkshire,  all  petitioned.  The  language  used 
was  strong ;  and  what  was  more  unpleasant,  they  all 
demanded  Parliamentary  Reform.  The  idea  was  evi- 
dently burning  itself  ever  deeper  into  the  people's 
minds  and  hearts  that  there  could  be  no  good  govern- 
ment, no  cessation  of  abuses  and  grievances,  until 
Parliament  was  reformed. 

As  if  to  point  the  necessity  of  reform,  another  great 
public  scandal  came  to  light,  and  the  country  was  again 
reminded  of  corruption  in  high  official  quarters — a  Mr. 
Joseph  Hunt,  a  "  Treasurer  of  the  Ordnance,"  and  a 
member  of  Parliament,  having  been  ascertained  to  have 
been  guilty  of  misapplying  a  large  sum  of  public  money, 
nearly  £100,000,  whilst  he  held  that  office. 

The  Corporation  of  London,  not  to  be  daunted  by 
the  treatment  its  Petition  had  received  at  the  hands  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  returned  to  the  charge,  and 
sent  another  Petition  to  the  House. 

1  Parliamentary    Debates,  vol.   xvi.          3  For  receiving  it,  36  ;  against,  128. 
p.  780.  *  Parliamentary  Debates,   vol.  xvii. 

-  58   voted  for  its  being  received  ;       p.  114,  etc. 
139  against. 


CHAP,  vin  AN  AGITATED  SESSION  341 

"This  time,"  says  Place,  "though  it  may,  I  think, 
be  called  the  most  offensive  of  any  presented  to  the 
House  among  those  which  were  rejected,  it  was  *  ordered 
to  lie  upon  the  table. "  It  was  a  long  and  vehement 
enumeration  of  some  of  the  iniquities  of  the  Govern- 
ment, and  must  have  been  unpleasant  reading  to  the 
majority  of  the  members  of  Parliament  had  they  not 
felt  secure  from  any  action  of  the  people.  But,  beyond 
occasional  Platform  speeches  and  occasional  speeches 
in  Parliament,  the  popular  party  could  do  little.  The 
Ministry  was  too  powerful  to  be  shaken,  and  the  issues 
involved  in  the  war  were  still  so  tremendous  and  so 
vast  that  home  affairs  were  completely  subordinate. 

Shortly  before  the  end  of  the  session  John  Gale 
Jones  was  released.  Sir  Francis  Burdett's  detention 
expired  only  with  the  prorogation  of  Parliament,  which 
took  place  on  the  21st  June.  Place  tells  us  that  "  Par- 
liament had  during  the  whole  session  been  uncommonly 
agitated,  was  very  uncomfortable  and  greatly  annoyed 
by  motions,  petitions,  and  proceedings  of  the  people 
all  over  the  country,  and  was  very  desirous  of  a 
prorogation." 

The  episode  had  been  a  most  useful  and  inspiriting 
one  for  the  Platform,  just  giving  at  a  critical  time  that 
impetus  which  was  necessary  to  keep  it  in  action. 

It  would  appear,  however,  that  there  was  much  in 
Platform  action  at  the  time  which  was  to  be  deprecated, 
though  not  condemned  in  the  way  the  Government  of 
the  day  condemned  it. 

Earl  Grey  (the  Mr.  Grey  of  1793),  in  a  speech  in 
the  House  of  Lords,  referring  to  outdoor  agitation,  in 
which  of  course  the  Platform  was  included,  said  :  '•  I 
am  not  ignorant  of  the  degrading  artifices  by  which 
popular  applause  is  acquired  —  artifices  with  which 


342         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"  neither  virtue  nor  talents  have  any  connection  ;  arts 
which  men  possessed  of  neither  are  best  fitted  to  prac- 
tice ;  men  such  as  we  have  lived  to  see  in  the  present 
day,  who,  renouncing  the  obligations  of  faith  and 
honour,  breaking  through  all  the  bonds  and  engagements 
that  hold  society  together,  have,  in  their  career  of  foul 
slander  and  dirty  calumny,  entirely  set  themselves 
above  all  the  decencies  of  private  life,  above  all  the 
courtesies  which  men  who  really  endeavour  to  discharge 
their  duty,  willingly  concede  to  their  adversaries."  .  .  . 
And  he  further  alludes  to  "the  basest  misrepresentations 
and  vilest  delusions  practised  by  men  who,  without  any 
regard  to  truth,  sacrifice  every  virtuous  and  really 
patriotic  object  to  the  shouts  of  a  vulgar  clamour."  l 
The  language  is  strong,  and  only  applicable  to  an 
extreme  section  of  those  using  the  Platform. 

Moreover,  the  Platform  was  in  its  early  days 
when  chese  words  were  spoken  ;  and  it  would  be  un- 
reasonable to  expect  it  to  have  been  blameless  and  free 
from  defects  and  objectionable  features. 

But  even  with  its  many  defects  the  Platform  was 
doing  most  useful  work,  and  whatever  could  be  said 
against  it,  this  must  be  said  for  it,  that,  where  it  was 
not  in  existence,  popular  agitation  and  discontent  took 
a  more  objectionable  and  dangerous  form.  In  the 
winter  of  1811-12  the  distress  of  the  people  became 
very  great,  and  their  restlessness  under  it  took  a  more 
organised  form  than  had  yet  been  seen  in  the  country. 

According  to  the  Report  of  the  Secret  Committee 
of  the  House  of  Lords,  which  was  appointed  to  investi- 
gate the  subject,  "  The  disposition  to  combined  and 
disciplined  riot  and  disturbance  seems  to  have  been 
first  manifested  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Nottingham, 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xvii.  p.  573. 


CHAP,  vin  LUDDITE  DISTURBANCES  343 

in  November  1811,  by  the  destruction  of  a  great 
number  of  newly-invented  stocking-frames  by  small 
parties  of  men.  By  degrees  the  rioters  became  more 
numerous  and  more  formidable.  Many  were  armed."  l 
Early  in  December  the  outrages  extended  in  some 
degree  to  Derbyshire  and  Leicestershire. 

"  The  spirit  of  riot  and  disturbance  was  extended  to 
many  other  places,"  parts  of  Cheshire,  Ashton-under- 
Lyne,  Eccles,  and  Middleton.  At  the  latter  place  an 
attack  was  made  on  a  mill  which  was  defended  by 
force,  and  five  of  the  rioters  were  killed.  A  few  days 
later  a  dwelling-house  was  burnt,  and  again  there  was 
loss  of  life,  several  of  the  rioters  being  killed  or  wounded. 
On  14th  April  1812  riots  occurred  at  Stockport.  Kiots 
also  took  place  at  Manchester,  "of  which  the  general 
pretence  was  the  high  price  of  provisions." 

At  West  Haughton  a  manufactory  was  burned  down 
by  rioters.  The  contagion  spread  to  Wigan,  Warrington, 
Carlisle,  and  into  Yorkshire.  The  machinery  in  a  mill 
at  Tentwhistle  was  utterly  destroyed,  and  Mr.  Horsfall, 
a  respectable  merchant  and  mill-owner  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Huddersfield,  was  shot  in  broad  daylight,  and 
died  of  his  wound.  At  Rawdon  and  other  places  the 
machinery  in  several  of  the  mills  was  destroyed  ;  nightly 
seizures  of  arms  also  took  place.  ..."  The  causes 
alleged  for  these  destructive  proceedings  have  been 
generally  the  want  of  employment  for  the  working 
manufacturers,  the  application  of  machinery  to  supply 
the  place  of  labour,  and  the  high  price  of  provisions." 

A  very  similar  report  was  made  by  the  Committee 
of  the  House  of  Commons.2  Cobbett,  in  commenting 
on  this  latter,  very  pertinently  remarked  :  "  There  was,  it 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xxiii.  s  See    the    Report,    Parliamentary 

p.  1030.  Debates,  vol.  xxiii.  p.  951. 


344         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"  seems,  no  evidence  of  a  setting  on,  no  evidence  to  prove 
a  plot.  The  Ministry  can  find  no  agitators.  It  is  a 
movement  of  the  people's  own  as  far  as  it  goes."  l 

This  was  perfectly  true,  but  what  is  more,  and  for  us 
the  point  of  the  whole  matter,  is  that  in  all  the  accounts 
of  this  first  industrial  convulsion  on  an  extended  scale, 
of  the  first  blind  throes  of  a  suffering  people  towards  the 
amelioration  of  their  condition,  there  is  no  allusion  to 
the  Platform  or  to  meetings,  no  accounts  of  speeches, 
incendiary  or  otherwise.  These  people  attempted  no 
verbal  complaints  that  should  reach  the  outer  world,  no 
discussion  of  their  grievances ;  they  adopted  no  Addresses, 
no  Petitions,  no  Remonstrances  ;  they  were  too  sunk  in 
ignorance  to  know,  too  devoid  of  leaders  to  have  the 
chance  of  learning  that  there  was  a  better  way  of  seek- 
ing redress  than  that  which  they  were  adopting,  though 
posterity  knows  that  the  Tory  Parliament  of  the  time 
was  not  much  disposed  to  listen  to  the  people's  com- 
plaints. 

Even  Lord  Sidniouth,  that  most  inveterate  and 
bitter  foe  of  the  Platform,  and  all  pertaining  to  it, 
though  declaring  that  the  outrages  were  fomented  by 
persons  who  had  views  and  objects  in  fomenting  dis- 
turbances, could  not  fasten  the  responsibility  of  the 
disturbances  on  the  Platform,  but  was  obliged  to  admit 
that  "  the  conduct  of  the  rioters  might  be,  in  some 
degree,  traced  to  the  high  price  of  provisions  and  the 
reduction  of  work." 2 

Other  men  of  larger  views  more  distinctly  declared 
this  to  be  so. 

Brougham  said,  "  The  disturbances  were  so  much  con- 
nected with  distress,  that  they  might  be  directly  traced 
to  it," 

1  Political    Register,    vol.     xxii.    p.  -  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xxiii. 

99.  p.  796. 


CHAP,  vin  LUDDITE  DISTURBANCES  345 

Whitbread  said,  "  The  origin  of  the  disturbances  was 
distress,  high  price  of  provisions,  want  of  employment ;" 
under  such  circumstances  popular  discontents  could 
always  thrive. 

Certainly  the  Platform  \vas  not  responsible.  In 
process  of  time  that  form  of  popular  agitation  would 
come,  a  step  to  a  higher  and  better  order  of  things. 
Now  the  suffering  people,  voiceless,  and  leaderless,  took 
the  remedy  into  their  own  hands  ;  they  worked  at  night 
— nocturnal  meetings  and  depredations — they  worked 
silently,  secretly ;  secret  oaths  and  undertakings  bound 
them  together,  and  they  sought  relief  by  riots,  assaults, 
destruction  of  machinery,  house-burnings,  mill-burnings, 
and  even  murder — a  much  worse  way  of  expressing  dis- 
content than  by  the  Platform. 

Though  several  of  the  rioters  were  made  amenable 
to  the  law  and  punished,  the  state  of  parts  of  the  country 
continued  very  serious,  and  Lord  Castlereagh  declared 
in  the  House  of  Commons  that  the  powers  of  the 
Government  were  not  sufficient  to  deal  with  the  disturb- 
ances. There  was  no  Platform  to  legislate  against,  no 
public  meetings  to  prohibit,  no  speeches  to  silence,  and 
so  the  Bill  which  the  Government  introduced  had  to 
be  moderate  in  its  scope.  The  Government  contented 
themselves  by  giving  the  magistrates  power  of  immedi- 
ately dispersing  a  tumultuous  body,  whether  at  night  or 
day,  and  making  those  who  did  not  disperse  liable  to  the 
penalties  for  misdemeanour ;  also  certain  other  powers 
not  needing  recital  here. 

The  measure  so  introduced,  and  subsequently  known 
as  the  "  Peace  Preservation  Act,"  was  passed  on  29th 
July,  and  was  to  continue  in  force  till  the  25th  March 
in  the  following  year. 

Whilst  ignorant  discontent  was  thus  venting  itself 


346         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

in  disturbances,  only  to  bring  down  further  suffering  and 
misery  on  the  participators  therein,  an  example  was 
given  of  discontent  in  the  more  educated  classes,  dis- 
playing itself  through  the  Platform,  and  with  a  different 
ending.  The  celebrated  Orders  in  Council,  which  were 
devised  as  a  retaliation  on  France  for  the  decrees  of 
Napoleon  against  English  trade,  had  resulted  in  pro- 
ducing great  commercial  distress  at  home.  Petition 
after  Petition,  many  emanating  from  public  meetings, 
poured  into  Parliament  against  these  orders.  The  table 
of  the  House  of  Lords  was  covered  with  them.  The 
table  of  the  House  of  Commons  still  more  so.  They 
were  not  from  the  men  who  were  rioting  and  burn- 
ing down  houses,  but  from  mercantile  men,  and 
from  artisans.  Lord  Stanley,  taking  the  Petitions  as 
his  justification,  moved  that  the  House  should  resolve 
itself  into  a  Committee  to  consider  them.  His  motion 
was  acceded  to,  and  the  inquiry  lasted  six  weeks,  during 
which  time  a  mass  of  evidence  was  collected.  When  the 
inquiry  had  concluded,  he  moved  for  the  repeal  of  the 
Orders  in  Council,  and  the  Government  undertook  to 
suspend  their  operation  for  a  time,  pending  communica- 
tion with  America.1 

On  the  29th  September  1812  Parliament  was  dis- 
solved, and  another  of  those  "periods  of  liberty" — a 
general  election — took  place.  But  the  franchise  was 
unaltered,  the  boroughmongers  were  as  numerous  as 
ever,  and  the  Liberal  party  lost  ground  rather  than 
gained.  Many  of  the  popular  members  lost  their  seats, 
owing  more  to  the  selfishness  of  borough  owners  than  to 
any  oscillation  of  popular  opinion.  In  England  only 
2  counties  were  contested,  in  Wales  1  ;  in  England 
only  39  boroughs,  and  in  Wales  5,  or  a  total  of  47 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xxii.  p.  1092. 


CHAP,  vni          THE  GENERAL  ELECTION  OF  1812  347 

contests.1  In  Scotland  1  county  was  contested,  though 
any  Scotch  contest  was  purely  nominal ;  thus  there  were 
only  48  contests  for  the  558  seats  in  Great  Britain,  the 
smallest  number  since  1774. 

Sir  F.  Burdett,  summing  up  the  result,  said  :  "  The 
late  appeal  to  the  people,  as  they  called  it,  rather 
savoured  to  damp  his  hopes  of  success  (as  regards  Par- 
liamentary reform)  than  otherwise.  When  he  cast  his 
eyes  over  the  representation  of  the  country,  he  saw  no 
great  bodies  of  men  who  were  permitted  to  choose  their 
representatives."2  There  were,  indeed,  only  one  or  two 
encouraging  signs  about  it.  One  was  that  during  the 
election  it  had  been  no  uncommon  thing  to  see  a  can- 
didate put  to  his  political  catechism,  and  made  to  give 
a  distinct  account  of  his  opinions  in  a  sort  of  way  never 
done  before ;  and  the  other  was  the  prominence  of  one 
or  two  contests  between  eminent  public  men.  Liver- 
pool was  contested  by  Canning,  who  had  been  Foreign 
Secretary,  and  Brougham,  then  a  leading  spirit  of  his 
party.  The  latter  gave  a  most  instructive  account  of 
the  work  of  the  Platform  on  the  occasion. 

Writing  to  Lord  Grey  in  October  1812  about  the 
election,  he  said :  "  You  can  have  no  idea  of  the  nature 
of  a  Liverpool  election  ;  it  is  quite  peculiar  to  the  place. 
You  have  every  night  to  go  to  the  different  clubs, 
benefit  societies,  etc.,  which  meet  and  speechify.  This 
is  from  half-past  six  to  one  in  the  morning  at  least ; 
and  you  have  to  speak  to  each  man  who  polls,  at  the 
bar,  from  ten  to  five.  It  lasted  eight  days.  I  began 
my  canvass  three  whole  days  before,  and  had  nine  nights 
of  the  clubs,  besides  a  regular  speech  each  day  at  close 
of  the  poll.  I  delivered  in  that  time  one  hundred  and 

1  See  the  Register  of  Parliamentary          2  The  Examiner,  p.  815,  1812. 
Contested  Elections,  by  H.   S.    Smith, 
London, 1842. 


348         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"sixty  speeches  and  odd  ;  and  yesterday  and  to-day,  after 
being  beaten,  I  rallied  and  delivered  regular  speeches  to 
the  whole  multitude.  I  had  to  close  with  one  above  an 
hour  long,  so  you  may  guess  how  exhausted  I  am, 
especially  as  I  never  saw  a  popular  election  before.  I 
knew  nothing  of  it.  The  exploits  of  the  Whigs  were 
my  chief  subjects,  and  I  flatter  myself  I  have  done 
much  to  reclaim  the  people  there." l 

The  exploits  of  Canning  deserve  more  notice.  He 
had  evidently  taken  up  the  mantle  which  had  fallen 
from  Fox's  shoulders,  so  far  as  the  Platform  was  con- 
cerned, but  he  had  turned  it  inside  out,  and  was  using 
it  now  for  Tory  instead  of  popular  purposes.2 

His  is  absolutely  the  first  instance  of  a  Tory  who 
had  held  high  office,  and  naturally  expected  to  hold  it 
again,  regularly  using  the  Platform.  "  He  has  shown," 
says  Cobbett,  "  a  greater  fondness  for  speech-making 
than  any  of  those  whom  he  and  his  associates  have 
heretofore  reproached  for  such  practice/' 

His  speeches  were  probably  as  numerous  during  the 
election  as  Brougham's,  as  he  spoke  every  day  at  the 
close  of  the  poll,  and  in  one  of  his  speeches  he  begged 
to  be  excused  from  making  a  longer  speech  on  the 
ground  of  the  necessity  under  which  he  was  to  attend 
in  the  course  of  the  evening  upon  several  meetings  of 
freemen.  No  sooner  was  the  election  over,  than  we 

1  The    Life    and    Times    of    Lord  taining  a  constant  intellectual  inter- 
Brougham,  written  by  himself,  1871,  course  with  his  constituents,  and  who 
vol.  ii.  p.  62.  has  seized  every  opportunity  of  per- 

2  Mr.  Thomas  Kaye,  in  his  Collec-  sonally  inculcating,  with  all  the  vigour 
tion    of    the    Speeches    of  the    Right  of    his    commanding    talents,    those 
Hmwurable   George  Canning  delivered  political   opinions  which  he  had  in- 
on  Public  Occasions  in  Liverpool,  p.  xiv.,  variably    advocated,   and    with    such 
which   he  published  in  1825,  wrote :  splendid    success,    in     the    Commons 
"Mr.  Canning  is,  so  far  as  our  recol-  House  of  Parliament."     But  as  I  have 
lection  serves,  the  first  British  senator  already   shown,    precedence    must  be 
who  has  valued  himself  upon   main-  given  to  Fox. 


CHAP,  vin  CANNING  AND  THE  PLATFORM  349 

find  him  haranguing,  as  Platform  opponents  called  it, 
at  a  dinner  at  Manchester,  delivering  a  regular  party 
leader's  speech. 

In  the  following  year,  after  the  session  was  over,  we 
find  him  again  speaking  at  Liverpool.  "  As  the  repre- 
sentative of  Liverpool,  I  am  most  happy  in  meeting  my 
constituents  again,  after  a  year's  experience  of  each 
other  and  a  year's  separation."  Had  his  constituents 
been  at  his  door,  as  Fox's  were,  it  is  probable  his 
harangues  would  have  been  as  numerous  as  Fox's. 

His  speeches  have,  moreover,  this  special  character- 
istic which  belongs  to  the  higher  class  of  Platform 
oratory,  that  they  were  addressed  not  merely  to  his 
constituents,  but  to  the  larger  public  without.  Both 
the  subjects  which  he  selected  to  speak  about,  and  his 
treatment  of  them,  were  on  a  very  different  level  than 
the  ordinary  hustings  eloquence  of  the  time ;  and  the 
fact  that  so  great  a  man,  and  one  who  had  filled  such 
high  station  in  the  government  of  the  country,  should 
resort  to  the  Platform  for  the  purposes  of  acquiring 
additional  popularity  and  power,  is  the  most  remark- 
able testimony  to  the  position  already  reached  by  the 
Platform. 


CHAPTER   IX 

THE    SECOND    SUPPRESSION    OF    THE    PLATFORM 

THE  long  war,  that  titanic  struggle  of  twenty  years' 
duration,  which  had  been  waged  by  England  for  her 
very  existence,  at  length  came  to  an  end. 

Peace  came  at  last.  The  icy  blasts  of  a  Russian 
winter  had  wrapped  one  whole  French  army  in  a  snowy 
pall,  and  the  gleaming  bayonets  and  indomitable 
courage  of  British  soldiers  had  routed  another.  France, 
unable  longer  to  carry  on  the  contest,  succumbed,  and 
a  treaty  of  peace  was  signed  on  30th  May  1814. 

For  twenty  years  the  kingdom  had  been  straining 
every  nerve  in  the  struggle,  money  had  been  poured 
forth  with  the  most  lavish  hands,  burden  after  burden 
had  been  piled  upon  the  people,  the  dread  of  invasion 
had  frequently  kept  the  country  in  a  fever  of  anxiety, 
political  reforms  were  declared  to  be  barred,  everything 
had  had  to  give  way  to  the  one  overwhelming  imperative 
necessity  of  war. 

War  had  become  almost  the  natural  state  of  life. 
A  generation  had  grown  up  in  wrar,  and  their  ideas 
were  habituated  to  it ;  political  parties  were  regulated  by 
their  approval  or  disapproval  of  it ;  agriculture  and 
manufactures  and  commerce  had  shaped  themselves  to 
the  circumstances  and  requirements  of  war ;  Govern- 


CHAP,  ix  FROM  WAR  TO  PEACE  351 

ment  itself  was  carried  on  in  the  atmosphere  of  war. 
And  now  all  was  to  be  different.  The  war  clouds  had 
broken,  and  were  rolling  away,  the  horrible  ever-present 
nightmare  was  disappearing.  Men  could  breathe  freely 
again,  could  think  of  something  else  than  war,  could 
lift  up  their  heads  and  look  about  them,  and  endeavour 
to  adapt  themselves  to  their  altered  and  wider  life. 

We  now  can  but  dimly  realise  what  the  change  was. 
It  was  like  the  raising  of  a  siege,  like  stepping  on  shore 
after  a  long  and  perilous  sea  voyage,  like  recovery  from 
a  desperate  and  critical  illness.  Life,  as  it  were,  was  to 
begin  again,  scope  was  once  more  to  be  afforded  for 
energies  long  restricted  and  confined,  and  forces  long 
dormant  were  to  spring  into  action. 

Though  political  life  and  action  had  been  more  or 
less  in  abeyance  during  all  the  long  years  of  the  war,  a 
gradual  process  of  education  and  enlightenment  had 
been  going  on  among  the  people,  an  increased  com- 
prehension of  the  principles  and  practice  of  Government, 
an  increasing  sense  of  a  just,  moral  claim  to  a  share 
or  voice  in  the  management  of  public  affairs,  and  an 
increased  desire  to  take  part  in  them.  The  complete 
freedom  of  speech  in  Parliament,  and  the  publication  of 
the  debates  or  discussions  there,  had  encouraged  freedom 
of  thought  amongst  the  people  outside,  and  habituated 
them  to  greater  freedom  of  discussion.  Public  interest 
in  the  proceedings  of  Parliament  had  grown  keener,  the 
growth  of  the  Press  had  given  those  proceedings  a 
wider  circulation,  and  the  public,  from  repeated  experi- 
ence, were  growing  ever  readier  to  criticise  the  action 
of  Parliament,  and  to  protrude  their  views,  opinions, 
and  judgment  on  the  Legislature.  Population  had 
increased,  and  great  centres  of  industrial  activity  grown 
into  being,  and  with  the  increasing  population  a  growing 


352         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

restlessness  had  been  showing  itself  among  large  masses 
of  the  people.  Nor  can  we  be  surprised  at  it,  for  there 
was  not  much  inducement  to  them  to  rest. 

Causes  of  discontent  were  numerous.  The  monopoly 
of  political  power  in  the  hands  of  so  small  a  part  of  the 
nation,  the  enormous  and  excessive  influence  of  the 
Crown,  the  shameful  and  now  exposed  abuses  in  the 
exercise  of  patronage  and  the  administration  of  the 
public  funds,  the  almost  unbearable  burden  of  the  taxes — 
all  these  were  there  to  urge  men,  once  war  had  ceased, 
to  agitation  for  reform,  social,  political,  or  material ;  and 
with  greater  knowledge  and  more  enlightened  intel- 
ligence on  the  part  of  the  people,  the  agitation  was 
certain  to  be  more  serious,  more  determined,  and  more 
pertinacious  than  it  had  ever  been  before. 

The  crisis  would,  under  any  circumstances,  have 
demanded  much  ability  and  tact  on  the  part  of  the 
political  leaders  successfully  to  surmount,  but  the 
Government  ao-oravated  the  difficulties  of  the  time  bv  a 

O<— '  v 

policy  which,  however  consonant  with  the  prevailing 
ideas,  was  most  disturbing  in  its  results,  and  once  more 
provoked  the  Platform  into  action. 

The  landed  interest  was  still  regarded  by  the 
governing  powers  of  the  time  as  the  most  important 
interest  in  the  country.  To  it  all  others  had  to  make 
way.  Commercial  and  manufacturing  interests  weighed 
almost  as  nothing  against  it.  If  grain  was  dear,  and 
the  rent  of  land  was  high,  the  country  was  pronounced 
to  be  in  a  state  of  sound  prosperity,  no  matter  how 
trade  and  commerce  languished.  If  the  price  of  grain 
fell,  and  the  farmers  could  not  afford  to  pay  a  high  rent, 
cries  of  lamentation  and  woe  instantly  arose  as  to  the 
distressed  state  of  the  country.  The  consumer  was 
thought  nothing  of,  was  of  no  consideration  whatever  in 


CHAP,  ix  THE  LANDLORD  INTEREST  353 

those  days ;  the  landed  interest,  or  to  be  more  precise, 
the  landlord  interest,  was  the  predominant  one ;  and 
inasmuch  as  the  landlord  interest  was  overwhelmingly 
predominant  both  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  in 
the  House  of  Lords,  legislators  took  very  good  care  of 
their  own  interests.  The  arguments  by  which  they 
justified  the  legislation  for  their  own  advantage  are  as 
entertaining  and  worthless  as  those  which  the  borough- 
mongers  used  against  proposals  for  a  reform  of 
Parliament ;  but  that  they  utilised  their  power  to  secure 
to  themselves  a  monopoly,  at  the  cost  of  every  other 
class  in  the  country,  shows  how  unfit  they  were  to  be 
trusted  with  the  power  they  had,  and  is  the  strongest 
possible  condemnation  of  the  then  existing  system  of 
representation. 

The  benefit  to  be  derived  from  the  legislation 
which  was  now  being  contemplated  by  the  landed 
interest  exclusively  and  entirely  affected  the  landowners. 
This  cannot  be  too  clearly  understood ;  and  as,  some 
five  and  thirty  years  later,  the  Corn  Laws  were  the 
subject  of  a  tremendous  agitation,  hereafter  to  be 
described,  this  point  can  with  advantage  to  a  true 
conception  of  the  question  be  stated  here. 

Whether  wheat  was  120s.  or  60s.  a  quarter  was  a 
matter  in  which  the  labourer  had  no  interest  whatever, 
so  far  as  his  wages  were  concerned.  If  he  got  higher 
wages  when  the  price  was  high,  and  as  a  rule  he  did 
not,  he  had  to  pay  higher  prices  for  his  food  and 
clothing.  And  as  regards  the  farmer,  it  came  to  the 
same  thing  if  he  got  a  low  price  for  his  produce,  and 
paid  a  low  rent,  or  got  a  high  price  for  his  produce,  and 
paid  a  high  rent — his  share  of  the  profits  was  the  same. 
The  landlords,  therefore,  were  the  only  persons  who 
profited  by  high  rents. 


354         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

To  keep  rent  high — that  was  their  one  object.  That 
could  only  be  done  by  making  the  produce  of  the  land 
as  dear  as  possible,  and  that  could  only  be  secured  by 
shutting  out  foreign  competitors,  and  thus  "  protecting  " 
home-grown  produce.  The  evils  resulting  from  natural 
scarcity  were  bad  enough,  in  all  conscience,  but  for 
Parliament  to  pass  a  law  in  the  interests  of  its  own 
members  and  class,  creating  artificial  scarcity,  was 
almost  the  most  heinous  offence  it  could  be  guilty  of. 

Since  1791  a  sliding  tax  had  been  imposed  on 
imported  corn, — that  is  to  say,  an  import  tax  which 
diminished  as  the  price  of  home-grown  corn  increased,  or 
increased  as  the  price  of  corn  diminished.  In  1813, 
when  prices  were  not  quite  as  high  as  was  deemed 
desirable,  the  landed  interest  had  prevailed  upon  Parlia- 
ment to  appoint  a  Committee  to  investigate  the  Corn 
Laws.  The  Committee  made  the  monstrous  recom- 
mendation that  wheat  should  have  reached  the  starvation 
price  of  105s.  a  quarter  before  the  importation  of  that 
article  should  be  permitted.1 

In  the  following  year  another  Committee  sat.  The 
Committee  observed  that  the  sudden  removal  of  the 
impediments  to  importation,  which,  during  the  war,  oper- 
ated to  check  the  importation  of  foreign  corn,  had  created 
among  the  occupiers  of  land  a  certain  degree  of  alarm. 

During  the  war,  more  particularly  in  the  latter  part 
of  it,  rents  had  been  fabulously  high,  and  the  landlords 
had  so  long  enjoyed  the  advantages  of  high  rents  that 
when  peace  came  they  were  determined,  if  possible,  to 
secure  the  continuance  of  a  state  of  things  which  enabled 
them  to  live  more  luxuriously  and  to  keep  up  greater 
state  than  otherwise  they  could  have  done.2  This  fact 

1  See   Parliamentary    Debates,   vol.  -  This  is  confirmed  by  Francis  Place, 

xxv.,  Appendix,  p.  Iv. 


CHAP,  ix  ANTI-CORN  LAW  AGITATION  355 

finds  confirmation  in  the  action  of  this  Committee,  which, 
more  moderate  than  its  predecessor  hinted  at  the  pro- 
tection price  being  raised  from  63s.,  at  which  it  had 
latterly  stood,  to  80s.  per  quarter. 

The  manifest  object  of  these  Committees  was  to  pave 
the  way  for  an  Act  of  Parliament  to  prohibit  the  im- 
portation of  corn,  until  home-grown  corn  would  sell  at 
such  a  price  as  would  enable  the  grower  to  grow  it,  and 
to  pay  as  high  rent  for  land  as  he  had  recently  been 
paying.  In  February  1815  the  Government  announced 
its  intention  of  prohibiting  the  importation  of  foreign 
wheat  until  the  price  of  80s.  per  quarter  had  been 
reached  for  home-grown  wheat,  and  a  Bill  to  this  effect 
was  accordingly  introduced. 

"  We  do  not  propose,"  wrote  Lord  Liverpool  with  a 
sort  of  generous  consideration,  and  as  if  deserving  of 
thanks  for  his  moderation,  "  to  push  the  protective 
price  beyond  80s.  a  quarter.  I  am  satisfied,  however, 
that  such  a  price  is  desirable  for  the  purpose  of  giving  a 
proper  stimulus  to  the  agriculture  of  this  country."  l 

But  if  part  of  the  country  was  in  favour  of  such 
legislation,  another  considerable  part  was  against  it,  as 
enhancing  the  price  of  food,  and  adding  to  their  difficul- 
ties of  existence. 

Parliament  being  a  packed  assembly  of  landowners, 
inaccessible  to  complaints  in  such  a  matter,  the  people's 
sole  resource  for  the  expression  of  their  views  was  the 
Platform.  To  it  they  appealed,  and  the  country  burst 
out  into  meetings  and  platformings. 

Already  in  1814  meetings  had  been  held,  and 
Petitions  adopted  against  any  alteration  of  the  Corn 
Laws.  Now,  in  the  early  part  of  1815,  meetings  against 

1  See  Life  and  Administration  of  Robert  Banks,  Second  Earl  of  Liverpool, 
byC.  D.  Young  (1868),  vol.  ii.  p.  136. 


356         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

the  Bill  became  general  throughout  the  country,  and 
again  do  we  find  the  civic  industrial  population 
giving  evidence  of  their  existence — this  time  on  a  far 
wider  scale  than  their  first  movement  just  after  the 
French  Revolution.  Petitions  poured  into  Parliament 
from  nearly  all  parts  of  the  kingdom.  From  Lancashire 
Petitions  came  signed  by  118,000  persons;  from  York- 
shire likewise  a  large  number.  A  Petition  came  from 
Manchester  signed  by  54,000,  setting  forth  "  the 
unequivocal  and  unanimous  opinion  of  the  petitioners, 
that  the  Bill  was  the  most  unadvised  and  injudicious 
measure  ever  brought  forward ;  that  the  petitioners 
were  convinced  that  it  would  have  the  effect  of  raising 
the  price  of  labour,  and  diminishing  the  demand  for  our 
manufactures." 

"The  Petition,"  said  Mr.  Philips,1  "came  from  a 
quarter  not  remarkable  for  public  meetings ;  for  the 
practice  there  was,  if  a  requisition  to  convene  one  was 
sent  to  the  proper  officer,  a  counter  one  was  sent  by 
a  greater  number,  and  consequently  no  meeting  was 
assembled.  This  practice  went  to  discountenance  the 
fair  and  constitutional  expression  of  public  feeling." 

However,  on  this  occasion,  a  meeting  was  held. 
The  newspapers  of  the  time  contain  no  reports  of  the 
speeches  delivered  at  the  meeting,  nor  any  comments 
thereon,  so  little  was  the  Platform  thought  of  still  by 
the  local  press.2 

Bristol  also  had  a  meeting,  and  sent  a  Petition 
signed  by  40,000  persons  ;  Leeds  sent  a  Petition  signed 
by  24,000. 

In  Kent  a  meeting  was  convened  at  Maidstone  in 
support  of  the  Corn  Law,  but  the  High  Sheriff,  inad- 

1  See  Speech  by  Mr.  Philips,  M.P.,  2  Historical   Sketches,  etc.,  of  Man- 

Hansard,  vol.  xxx.  p.  8.  Chester,  by  A.  Prentice,  p.  71. 


CHAP,  ix  ANTI-CORN  LAW  AGITATION  357 

vertently,  perchance,  appointed  the  meeting  on  the 
market-day.  The  result  was,  as  Lord  Darnley  pathetic- 
ally complained  to  the  House  of  Lords,1  "  that  all  the 
rabble  attended,  together  with  the  workmen  from  the 
paper  manufactories,  and  a  number  of  idle  discharged 
servants,  who  raised  such  a  clamour  that  he  could  not 
be  heard  ;  and  the  landowners  and  occupiers  of  land  had 
to  adjourn  to  an  inn  in  the  town,  where  certain  resolu- 
tions and  the  present  Petition  were  agreed  to." 

The  proposed  measure  had  been  introduced  on  the 
17th  of  February,  and  was  pressed  forward  by  the 
Government  with  such  precipitate  haste  that  the  distant 
parts  of  the  country  could  scarcely  get  time  to  express 
an  opinion  on  it.2  Indeed,  the  Government  laid  them- 
selves open  to  the  charge,  to  all  appearances  a  true  one, 
that  they  wanted  to  force  the  Bill  through  Parliament, 
without  giving  time  for  adequate  discussion,  either  by 
Parliament  or  the  country.  The  hurry  of  the  measure 
was  a  great  cause  of  the  uneasiness  out  of  doors.3  In 
London,  unfortunately,  the  people  passed  beyond  the 
Platform  and  endeavoured  to  carry  their  views  by  riot. 

"  The  mob,  as  a  mob,"  wrote  a  contemporary  paper,4 
"  are  little  worth  certainly,  but  as  an  organ  which,  on 
such  occasions,  only  gives  fiercer  vent  to  the  opinion  of 
the  community  at  large,  which  expresses  with  violence 
what  others  represent  with  temper,  it  is  not  to  be 
despised  even  as  giving  a  judgment  on  the  question. 
It  is  the  disregard  of  petitioners,  and  not  of  mobs, 
against  which  we  would  chiefly  protest." 

As  a  rule,  however,  the  people  carried  on  their 
agitation  without  violence  or  disturbance.  "  In  Man- 

1  Hansard,  vol.  xxix.  p.  1166.  3  See  Hansard,  vol.  xxx.  p.  72. 

~  See  Mr.  Baring's  Speech,  Hansard,  4  The  Examiner,  1815,  p.  170. 

vol.  xxx.  p.  10. 


358         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

"chester  and  Liverpool  the  public  peace  was  in  no  degree 
disturbed.  Notwithstanding  the  public  anxiety  which 
prevailed  in  all  the  populous  towns  from  which  Peti- 
tions had  been  presented  no  disturbance  had  occurred. 
Indeed,  the  public  meetings  upon  this  subject  were 
generally  remarkable  for  a  degree  of  order  and  decorum, 
which  might  be  held  out  as  an  example  to  much  more 
exalted  assemblies."1 

A  great  meeting  of  the  merchants,  bankers,  and 
traders  of  the  city  was  held  in  London.  "  There  never 
was  assembled  a  more  orderly  meeting,"  and  a  Petition 
was  adopted,  and  having  been  signed  by  40,000  persons, 
was  presented  to  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  6th 
of  March.  "Numerous  Petitions  were  presented  by 
different  members  from  nearly  all  parts  of  the  kingdom 
praying  that  no  alteration  might  be  made  in  the  Corn 
Laws." 

A  great  meeting  was  held  in  Westminster.  "  The 
Palace  Yard  was  entirely  filled/'  and  a  Petition  to  the 
House  of  Commons  was  adopted  and  signed  by  42,000 
persons.  One  or  two  paragraphs  from  it  throw  much 
light  on  the  popular  feelings  of  the  time,  and  explain 
some  of  the  causes  of  the  popular  discontent. 

"  That  on  the  unexpected  and  fortunate  return  of 
peace,  it  was  reasonable  to  hope  that  this  forced  and 
unnatural  state  of  things  would  be,  in  a  great  degree, 
corrected;2  that  the  rent  of  land  and  the  prices  of 
provisions  would  be  reduced ;  that  some  of  the  more 
grievous  and  burthensome  taxes  would  cease ;  that 
commerce  would  flow  into  its  accustomed  channels ; 
that  a  stimulus  would  be  given  to  our  manufacturing 
and  trading  interests  by  the  freedom  of  intercourse 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xxx.  2  Hansard,  1815,  vol.  xxx.  p.  110. 

1815,  p.  71. 


CHAP,  ix  THE  CORN  LAW  359 

with  foreign  nations ;  and  that  all  classes  of  our  fellow- 
subjects  would  participate  in  those  blessings  and  advan- 
tages fco  which  they  had  formerly  been  accustomed  in 
times  of  tranquillity. 

"  That  your  petitioners  have,  however,  noticed  with 
extreme  concern  and  anxiety  the  introduction  into  your 
honourable  House  of  a  Bill  relative  to  the  importation 
of  corn,  which,  if  passed  into  a  law,  must  necessarily 
and  directly  produce,  and,  in  the  judgment  of  your 
petitioners,  is  intended  to  produce,  a  great  permanent 
increase  in  the  price  of  one  of  the  first  necessaries  of 
life,  for  the  sake  of  enabling  the  proprietors  and  culti- 
vators of  land  to  maintain  undiminished  a  splendid  and 
luxurious  style  of  living,  unknown  to  their  fathers,  in 
which  they  were  tempted  to  indulge  during  the  late 
war,  so  highly  profitable  to  them,  and  so  calamitous  to 
most  of  their  fellow-subjects." 

Carried  by  huge  majorities  of  those  who  called  them- 
selves representatives  of  the  people,  but  who  were  in 
reality  representatives  solely  of  their  own  interests,  the 
Bill  reached  the  House  of  Lords.  Here  numerous  peti- 
tions awaited  it,  amongst  others  one  from  a  Wiltshire 
county  meeting  held  at  Salisbury  on  the  8th  March. 

"  That  your  petitioners,  at  the  moment  when  they 
were  justified  in  expecting  to  enter  on  the  enjoyments 
of  the  blessings  usually  attendant  on  peace,  to  which 
they  had  so  long  been  strangers,  perceive  with  the 
deepest  sorrow  that  attempts  are  making  to  prolong 
and  perpetuate  the  sufferings  of  war  by  enhancing  and 
upholding  the  price  of  corn." l 

This  self-same  county  meeting  had  also  passed  a 
resolution  which  shows  the  angry  state  of  mind  of  many 
on  this  subject. 

1  Cobbett's  Political  Register,  vol.  xxvii.  p.  293. 


360        THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

Eesolved — "  That  political  corruption,  after  having 
exhausted  all  the  other  sources  of  taxation,  has  at  last  pro- 
ceeded to  the  outrageous  length  of  attempting  to  burthen 
with  a  heavy  tax  the  very  bread  that  we  eat,  being 
thereunto  urged  and  encouraged  by  the  false  statements  of 
certain  rapacious  landowners ;  that,  therefore,  a  Petition 
be  presented  to  the  House  of  Lords,  praying  their  Lord- 
ships to  interpose  in  behalf  of  this  long-insulted  and 
long-suffering  nation,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  prevent 
the  enacting  of  any  law  to  prohibit  or  restrain  the 
free  importation  of  corn." 

In  the  House  of  Lords  the  progress  of  the  Bill, 
despite  all  Petitions,  was  as  rapid  as  it  had  been  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  One  argument  alone  was  offered 
there  in  its  support  which  deserves  notice. 

Lord  Liverpool,  in  moving  the  second  reading  of  the 
Bill,  urged  in  its  defence  the  necessity  for  rendering 
England  as  independent  as  possible  of  foreign  supplies.1 

"  A  nation  of  10,000,000  to  20,000,000,"  he  said, 
"  could  not  suffer  itself  to  be  dependent  on  foreign  sup- 
plies for  the  necessaries  of  life  without  the  most  pal- 
pable impolicy  and  the  greatest  danger." 

But  this  necessarily  implied  that  the  limit  of  Eng- 
land's power  and  population  was  fixed  by  the  amount  of 
the  produce  of  the  national  soil.  That,  happily,  was  not 
quite  what  other  Englishmen  thought,  nor,  had  they 
thought  it,  would  it  have  been  a  feasible  policy. 

As  was  very  pertinently  asked  by  Sir  Robert  Peel, 
"  Was  it  intended  that  we  should  for  the  future  only 
live  on  the  produce  of  the  land  ? "  If  so,  England  had 
already  nearly  reached  the  apex  of  her  might. 

To  the  last  the  Platform  did  its  best.  One  after- 
noon, namely,  on  the  20th  of  March,  the  House  of  Lords 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xxx.  p.  177. 


CHAP,  ix        THE  ANTI-PROPERTY  TAX  AGITATION  361 

was  occupied  "  for  nearly  two  hours  "  in  receiving  Peti- 
tions on  the  subject  of  the  Corn  Laws.1 

The  consideration  given  to  them  by  their  Lordships 
was  shown  by  the  fact  that  there  and  then  they  imme- 
diately proceeded  to  read  the  Bill  a  third  time,  and  to 
pass  it ! 

Though  the  agitation  was  thus  unsuccessful,  it  was 
not  without  effect.  The  Platform  had  made  a  gallant 
struggle ;  it  had  roused  additional  numbers  of  the 
people  to  political  activity ;  it  had  brought  a  new  and 
momentous  topic  within  the  range  of  their  discussion ; 
it  had  brought  new  classes  within  the  sphere  of  its 
influence — consequences  all  tending  to  the  growth  and 
power  of  the  Platform  in  days  to  come. 

Concurrently  with  unsuccessful  agitation  against  the 
new  Corn  Law,  the  Platform  was  also  being  brought 
into  use  against  the  continuance  of  the  "  Property  Tax," 
or,  as  it  is  more  generally  known  now,  the  "  Income 
Tax."  This  tax  had  always  been  regarded  as  a  war 
tax,  and  throughout  the  war  had  been  very  high — at 
one  time  (1805)  having  been  as  much  as  two  shillings  in 
the  pound.  When  peace  came,  people  might  naturally 
have  thought  that  the  great  war  expenditure  would 
come  to  an  end,  and  have  expected  that  this  tax  would 
be  discontinued.  But  as  the  Government  never  made 
any  popular  concession  without  pressure,  the  aid  of  the 
Platform  was  invoked  against  it ;  and  through  the 
autumn  and  winter  of  1814-15  meetings  were  held, 
speeches  made,  and  Petitions  adopted  to  Parliament, 
asking  for  its  discontinuance.  Numerous  county  meet- 
ings took  place.  Norfolk,  Hampshire,  Somerset,  Durham, 
Hertford,  Berkshire,  and  Middlesex  all  held  meetings. 

At  the  Norfolk   meeting,  on    llth  January  1815, 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xxx.  p.  256,  20th  March. 


362         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

the  Earl  of  Albemarle  was  amongst  the  speakers,  and 
his  speech  gives  an  excellent  illustration  of  the  character 
of  these  meetings,  and  of  the  arguments  used  at  them. 
"  It  was,"  he  said,  "  a  constitutional  right  of  English- 
men— a  right  inherent  in  them — to  assemble  together 
for  the  purpose  of  thus  publicly  expressing  their  opinion 
of  the  proposed  renewal  of  the  tax.  .  .  .  The  tax  was 
oppressive  because  it  was  unequal.  It  was  ruinous  as 
well  to  the  higher  as  to  the  lower  classes  among  us.  .  .  . 
We  are  now  at  peace  with  America,  indeed  with  the 
whole  world,  and  he  could  not  see  upon  what  grounds 
Ministers  could  now  continue  this  tax.  Lord  Liverpool 
writes  to  his  friends  that  it  might  be  found  necessary  to 
continue  the  tax  a  year  longer,  which,  in  the  cant 
phrase  of  Ministers,  was  but  feeling  the  public  pulse. 
Let  them  know  by  your  proceedings  this  day  that  your 
pulse  is  felt,  and  that  it  beats  with  indignation  at  this 
attempt,  and  that  they  are  not  thus  to  violate  their 
word,  pledged  as  it  was  to  the  country  for  the 
expiration  of  this  abominable  tax.  The  very  proposi- 
tion for  a  continuance  of  it  is  founded  on  a  breach  of 
honour  and  faith.  .  .  .  Ministers  must  be  compelled 
to  give  up  this  tax  by  the  common  voice  of  the 
people.  Remonstrate  constitutionally  and  you  will  be 
relieved.  The  language  of  Ministers  is  too  arbitrary 
for  England."  a 

The  inhabitants  of  Westminster,  always  in  the  front 
where  political  action  was  required,  held  a  large  meet- 
ing in  Palace  Yard,  and  adopted  a  Petition  against  the 
tax,  and  meetings  were  also  held  in  York,  Bristol,  and 
Liverpool  for  a  similar  purpose.  In  one  important 
respect  this  agitation  differed  from  that  against  the 
Corn  Laws,  namely,  that  in  this  one  a  large  number  of 

1  See  The  Examiner,  p.  77. 


CHAP,  ix  THE  HUNDRED  DAYS  363 

the  upper  classes  joined  in  the  movement.  The  result 
was  that  it  was  more  successful.  So  strong  was  the 
agitation  against  the  tax,  that  the  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer,  on  introducing  the  Budget,  on  the  20th  of 
February  1815,  stated,  "  That  it  was  not  his  intention  to 
propose  any  further  continuance  of  the  Property  Tax."1 
A  "  private  and  confidential "  letter  from  the  Prime 
Minister  to  Lord  Castlereagh,  written  on  the  same  day, 
explains  the  policy  of  the  Government,  and  to  the  dis- 
cerning reader  throws  a  brilliant  flash  of  light  on  other 
things  besides.  "The  truth  is,  the  country  at  this 
moment  is  peace  mad,"  wrote  Lord  Liverpool.  "  Many 
of  our  best  friends  think  of  nothing  but  the  reduction 
of  taxes  and  low  establishments,  and  it  is  very  doubtful 
whether  we  could  involve  the  country  in  a  war  at  this 
moment  for  objects  which,  on  every  principle  of  sound 
policy,  ought  to  lead  to  it.  This,  like  all  other  popular 
sentiments  in  a  country  such  as  ours,  will  wear  out ; 
but  after  such  a  contest  for  twenty  years,  we  must  let 
people  taste  something  of  the  blessings  of  peace  before 
we  can  expect  fairly  to  screw  them  up  to  a  war  spirit, 
even  in  a  just  cause." 2 

Before  any  of  the  blessings  of  peace  could  be 
secured,  before  the  people  could  feel  the  benefit  of  the 
success  of  their  Platform  agitation  against  the  tax, 
Napoleon  escaped  from  Elba,  was  received  with  acclama- 
tion by  France,  the  country  was  once  more  plunged 
into  war,  and  the  tax  was  reirnposed.  Happily  the 
struggle  was  of  short  duration,  the  glorious  victory  at 
Waterloo  was  won,  and  within  a  hundred  days  the  fate 
of  England,  and  of  Europe,  was  decided. 

The  final  overthrow  of  Napoleon,  and  his  removal 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xxix.  2  Life  and  Administration  of  Robert 

p.  853  (1815).  Banks,  Second   Earl  of  Liverpool,  by 

C.  D.  Young  (1868),  vol.  ii.  p.  105. 


364         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

from  the  sphere  of  European  politics,  at  last  secured  the 
hopes  of  permanent  peace.  Peace  with  America  too 
was  settled,  and  Britain  could  at  last  rest  from  the 
strife,  could  convert  her  soldiers'  swords  into  plough- 
shares. 

Peace  that  had  long  been  looked  forward  to,  long 
hoped  for,  long  prayed  for — peace  that  was  to  bring 
innumerable  blessings  in  its  train,  plenty,  and  comforts, 
and  ease,  and  happiness — peace  had  come,  but  with  it, 
at  first,  deep  misery  and  bitter  disappointment.  The 
distress  which  had  shown  itself  in  1812  had  gradually 
deepened  and  spread.  The  repeal  of  the  Orders  in 
Council  had  caused  such  a  violent  rebound  in  trade  that 
the  exportation  of  manufactured  goods  had  been  over- 
done, and  the  results  had  been  fresh  commercial  distress, 
a  prodigious  diminution  in  the  demand  for  manufac- 
tures, and  a  serious  diminution  in  the  demand  for  the 
produce  of  land. 

The  cessation  of  the  war  led  to  the  sudden  diminu- 
tion in  the  expenditure  of  the  Government  to  the 
amount  of  £50,000,000* — a  result  which,  though  most 
satisfactory  in  itself,  had  the  unfortunate  effect  of 
deranging  the  markets  both  for  manufacture  and  pro- 
duce ;  and  the  new  Corn  Law,  while  enhancing  the  cost 
of  food  against  the  consumer,  was  still .  inefficient  in 
keeping  prices  up  to  that  high  level  to  which  landowners 
had  been  accustomed,  and  which  they  deemed  necessary 
for  their  welfare. 

"  What ! "  exclaimed  Mr.  Western  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  when  moving  for  a  Committee  of  the  whole 
House  on  the  subject  of  agricultural  distress — "  what 
must  be  the  situation  of  a  country  like  this,  when  the 

1  From  £125,000, 000  to  £72,000,000.    See  Brougham's  Speech,  Hansard,  vol. 
xxxiii.  p.  1102,  9th  April  1816. 


CHAP,  ix        THE  ANTI-PROPERTY  TAX  AGITATION  365 

land  paid  no  rent,  when  the  wages  of  labour  were  not 
equal  to  the  sustenance  of  the  labourer,  and  when  the 
profits  of  agricultural  stock  were  turned  into  losses  ? 
Such  was  the  actual  situation  of  the  country,  burdened 
in  addition  with  a  heavy  national  debt,  and  an  enormous 
taxation  to  support  establishments  of  unprecedented 
magnitude." l  Mr.  Brand  endorsed  this  description. 
"  The  calamities  which  the  agriculturists  in  many 
parts  of  the  country  were  enduring,  the  miseries  under 
which  that  class  were  groaning,  presented  a  picture  of 
wretchedness  which  might  rend  the  most  callous  heart." 
Distress  instead  of  plenty,  misery  instead  of  comfort — 
these  were  the  first  results  of  peace.  A  Tory  newspaper 
of  the  day  summarised  the  state  of  things  in  the  words  : 
"  Peace  is  felt  by  almost  all  classes  as  a  calamity." 

Distress  and  hardships  ever  set  men's  minds  working 
for  political  changes,  and  so  now  the  people  took  into 
their  own  hands  the  consideration  of  their  state  and  the 
discussion  of  the  remedies.  Their  first  disappointment 
was  that  when  peace  came  the  war  taxes,  amounting  to 
about  £25,000,000  a  year,  were  not  at  once  stopped. 
Principal  among  these  was  the  Property  Tax,  which 
yielded  some  £14,000,000.3 

The  day  after  the  opening  of  Parliament,  namely,  on 
2d  of  February  1816,  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer, 
who,  one  would  have  thought,  should  have  learned 
wisdom  from  the  proceedings  of  the  previous  year, 
stated  that  he  proposed  to  continue  the  Property  Tax, 
with  some  modifications,  for  two  or  three  years.  In- 
stantly the  people  betook  themselves  to  meetings,  to 
platformings,  to  petitions  against  the  tax  in  a  way  they 
had  never  done  before.  The  country  was  agitated  from 

1  Hansard,  vol.  xxxiii.  p.  667,  1816.  3  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xxxii. 

2  Ibid.  p.  670.  p.  432. 


366         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

one  end  to  the  other.  Petitions  were  poured  into  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  as  nearly  every  Petition  ori- 
ginated at  a  meeting,  and  was  the  result  of  Platform 
discussion  and  a  good  deal  of  Platform  speaking,  some 
idea  may  be  formed  from  the  number  and  the  nature 
of  the  Petitions  of  the  position  which  the  Platform  was 
coming  to  occupy  in  the  public  mind.  The  resolutions 
passed  by  one  meeting  may  be  taken  as  an  example  of 
the  others,  and  of  the  text  on  which  the  Platform  was 
enlarging. 

On  the  21st  of  February  1816  a  county  meeting  of 
the  gentlemen,  clergy,  freeholders,  and  inhabitants  was 
held  in  Hampshire,  at  which  it  was  resolved :  "  That 
the  exigencies  of  the  late  war  were  the  causes  assigned 
by  the  Legislature  for  the  extraordinary  impost,  called 
the  'Property  Tax.'"1 

"  That,  by  the  express  terms  of  the  several  statutes 
imposing  the  said  tax,  the  faith  of  the  Legislature  stands 
pledged  ;  that  its  duration  should  be  limited  by  the  war 
that  gave  birth  to  it." 

"  That  the  intention,  avowed  by  Ministers,  of  pro- 
posing a  further  continuance  of  the  said  tax  in  this 
time  of  profound  peace  is  in  direct  violation  of  the 
sacred  word  and  faith  of  Parliament,  and  in  utter  dis- 
regard of  the  general  voice  of  the  people  conveyed  to 
the  House  of  Commons  in  the  last  session." 

A  Petition  was  agreed  on,  and  the  members  for  the 
county  were  •'  instructed  "  to  present  it  to  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  to  "  support  the  prayer  thereof  to  the 
utmost  of  their  power." 

Cobbett,  commenting  on  the  agitation  at  the  time, 
wrote  :  "But  the  people  of  all  ranks  have  taken  the 
alarm,  and  are  now  bestirring  themselves  in  a  manner 

1  Cobbett's  Political  Register,  vol.  xxx.  p.  226. 


CHAP,  ix        THE  ANTI-PROPERTY  TAX  AGITATION  367 

that  I  have  never  before  seen  them,  since  I  have  known 
anything  of  public  affairs.  The  country  gentlemen,  so 
long  dead  to  all  those  feelings  which  distinguished  their 
ancestors,  so  long  sunk  in  a  sort  of  unaccountable 
apathy,  so  long  the  tame  followers  of  every  Minister 
.  .  .  instead  of  taking,  as  they  formerly  did,  the  lead 
in  deciding  on  questions  of  war  or  of  taxation,  this 
description  of  persons,  so  long  dead  to  their  country, 
seem  at  last  to  be  stirring  into  life."  l 

And  he  further  remarked :  "  The  struggle  (about 
the  income  tax)  is  a  novel  spectacle.2  I  do  not  recollect 
any  very  serious  opposition  ever  having  been  made  before 
to  a  tax  of  any  sort.  The  opposition  itself  is  something 
new  ;  but  the  description  of  persons  (namely,  the  country 
gentry)  who  have  now  appeared  on  the  stage  is  also 
new,  and  this  is  a  matter  of  much  greater  importance." 

A  great  meeting  was  held  at  Westminster  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  tax — some  40,000  it  was  said, — "  West- 
minster which  is  to  England  what  the  heart  is  to  the 
human  body."  Day  after  day,  sometimes  in  thirties 
and  forties,  the  Petitions  were  presented  to  the  House. 

Mr.  Madocks,  in  presenting  one  from  Boston,  said  : 
'•'  He  was  directed  by  his  constituents,  especially  charged, 
to  give  every  support  in  his  power  to  the  Petition."  He 
censured  Ministers  for  pressing  the  subject  forward  with 
such  indecent  haste,  and  said,  that  "  Parliament  ought 
to  be  considered  anything  rather  than  a  mere  registry 
of  the  Ministers'  edicts,  and  their  ready  instruments  for 
laying  burthens  on  the  nation." 

Night  after  night  long  debates  took  place  on  the 
Petitions,  the  Government  refusing  to  give  way,  and 
showing  their  fangs  in  irritation. 

1  Cobbett's   Political   Register,    vol.  3  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xxxii. 

xxx.  p.  260,  2d  March.  p.  875. 

a  Ibid.  p.  290. 


368         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

Lord  Castlereagh1  inveighed  against  "the  ignorant 
impatience  of  the  people  to  be  relieved  from  the  pressure 
of  taxation " ;  and  on  another  occasion  said  that 
"  Gentlemen  on  the  other  side  of  the  House  attempted 
to  clamour  down  this  taxation  instead  of  arguing  the 
question." 2 

Mr,  Tierney  remonstrated  and  said :  "  The  voice 
which  the  country  had  raised  against  that  execrable  tax 
showed  a  proper  and  becoming  spirit,  and  the  noble  lord 
called  it  clamour."  At  last,  on  the  18th  March,  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  brought  forward  his 
motion  for  the  continuance  of  the  tax.  He  ignored 
the  worth  of  the  Petitions. 

" The  Petitions,"  he  said,  "contained  only  the  sen- 
timents of  a  very  small  proportion  of  the  people.  .  .  . 
The  petitioners  had  only  attended  to  the  pressure  upon 
themselves,  which  they  were  naturally  anxious  to  re- 
move, because  they  thought  it  no  longer  necessary.3 

"  He  was  persuaded  that  such  would  not  have  been 
their  judgment  if  they  had  had  an  opportunity  of  being 
fully  acquainted  with  the  whole  matter,  and  of  deliber- 
ating calmly  and  impartially  upon  the  subject.  He  was 
the  more  convinced  that  the  petitioners  had  not  under- 
stood the  subject,  and  had  never  coolly  and  impartially 
considered  it,  when  he  observed  that  almost  all  these 
Petitions  contained  the  unfounded  allegation  that  the 
Government  and  Parliament  stood  pledged  that  the  tax 
should  cease  with  the  war."4 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xxxii.  commence  and   take  effect  from  the 
p.  455.  5th  April  1806,  and  that  the  said  Act, 

2  See  his  disavowal  of  these  phrases  and  the  duties  thereof,  shall  continue 
a  month  later,  Parliamentary  Debates,  in  force  during  the  present  war,  and 
vol.  xxxiii.  p.  459.  until  the  6th  April  next,  after  the  de- 

3  Hansard,  1816,  vol.  xxxiii.  p.  421.  finitive  signature  of  a  treaty  of  peace, 

4  The  pledge  was  to  be  found  in  the  and    no    longer."  —  See    Brougham's 
247th  Section  of  the  Property  Tax  Act :  Speech,   Parliamentary    Debates,    voL 
"Be  it  enacted  that  this  Act  shall  xxxiii.  p.  450. 


CHAP,  ix  DEFEAT  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT  369 

As  it  happened,  however,  on  this  occasion  it  was  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  who  was  wrong.  The 
Platform  was  in  the  right. 

Lord  Castlereagh  expressed  his  views  on  the  subject 
more  fully  :  "  He  begged  to  be  understood  as  speaking 
with  all  due  deference  of  the  Petitions  which  had  been 
presented  to  that  House  upon  the  subject ;  but  when  he 
considered  what  ought  to  be  the  influence  of  those  Peti- 
tions, no  one  would  say  that  the  deliberative  faculties 
of  Parliament  ought  to  be  so  limited  or  paralysed  by 
them,  that  the  Legislature  of  the  country  was  to  look  to 
the  sentiments  entertained  beyond  the  walls  of  that 
House  for  the  rule  and  guide  of  the  course  it  had  to 
pursue.1  .  .  . 

"  With  respect  to  the  Petitions  generally,  there  was 
a  great  mass  of  them,  and  many  of  a  most  respectable 
description.  But  when  he  looked  at  them  in  the  aggre- 
gate, and  asked  himself  whether  they  could  be  con- 
sidered as  containing  the  sentiments  of  the  whole  people 
of  Great  Britain,  he  was  compelled  to  give  his  negative 
to  such  a  proposition.  In  fact,  one-fourth  of  the  coun- 
ties of  Great  Britain  had  not  petitioned  at  all.  There 
were  not  more  than  nineteen  Petitions  from  counties, 
out  of  nearly  ninety  of  which  Great  Britain  was  com- 
posed.2 .  .  .  Full  one-third  of  the  Petitions  presented 
came  from  two  counties  only — Devonshire  and  Middle- 
sex,— a  circumstance  which  was  explained  by  the  mode 
of  obtaining  them  in  separate  parishes. 

"  The  aggregate  amount  of  Petitions  was  about  400, 
and  130  came  from  those  two  counties." 

For  once,  and  only  once,  these  autocratic  Ministers 

1  Hansard,  vol.  xxx.  p.  443.  Scotch   counties   were   wholly   in   the 

2  For  the  sake  of  effect  Lord  Castle-  hands  of  the  Tories.     They  were  much 
reagh    most    disingenuously   included  on  a   par  in  every  respect  with   the 
Scotland  in  this  calculation,  but  the  rotten  boroughs. 


370        THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

were  to  receive  such  a  slap  in  their  faces  as  would  make 
their  cheeks  tingle  for  many  a  long  day. 

When  the  division  came  201  members  voted  for  the 
continuance  of  the  tax,  and  238  voted  against  it,  and 
the  Government  was  defeated  by  37  votes.  The  result 
was  almost  as  great  a  surprise  as  was  the  triumph  of 
Dunning's  celebrated  motion  on  the  increase  of  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Crown  in  1780. 

Such  a  crushing  defeat,  due  mainly  to  the  expres- 
sion of  the  people's  will  through  the  Platform,  might 
naturally  have  been  expected  to  lead  to  the  resigna- 
tion of  the  Ministry.  On  many  other  occasions  a  less 
serious  defeat  has  resulted  in  the  resignation  of  Min- 
isters ;  but  unfortunately,  on  this  occasion,  though  the 
defeat  should  have  led  to  their  dismissal,  there  was 
no  party  to  take  their  place. 

Lord  Castlereagh,  the  leader  of  the  Government  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  declared  that  "their  system 
for  sustaining  the  credit  of  the  country  had  been 
broken  in  upon,"  yet  accepted  their  defeat,  and  the 
next  night  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  empha- 
sised the  acknowledgment  of  their  defeat  by  announc- 
ing their  intention  of  giving  up  the  war  duty  on  malt, 
against  which  comparatively  little  outcry  had  been 
raised. 

In  examining  the  cause  of  this  unexpected  suc- 
cess of  the  Platform  against  a  Ministry  backed  by  their 
own  dependents  and  the  nominees  of  boroughmongers, 
the  explanation  is  to  be  found  in  the  additional  aid 
which  the  Platform  received  on  this  occasion  from  some 
of  the  classes  who  usually  stood  aloof  from  it.  The 
tax  fell  heavily  on  the  country  gentlemen  and  many 
of  the  wealthier  classes.  Anxious  to  get  rid  of  it  they 
joined  the  lower  classes  of  the  people  in  agitating 


CHAP,  ix  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE  371 

against   it ;    and  the    result  was  a  fresh  and  distinct 

o 

triumph  for  the  Platform. 

The  marked  difference  that  such  co-operation  caused 
was  soon  after  to  be  exemplified,  for  even  while  this 
agitation  was  going  on,  another  had  begun,  which,  not 
alone,  they  did  not  join,  but  actually  opposed ;  and  the 
result  was  very  different  —  this  was  the  agitation  for 
Parliamentary  Reform.  The  question,  though  occasionally 
dormant,  never  for  one  moment  sunk  out  of  mind.  It 
had  been  kept  alive  in  Parliament  by  an  occasional 
motion  on  the  subject.  Outside  Parliament,  no  matter 
what  subject  engrossed  the  attention  of  the  Platform 
for  the  time,  the  reform  of  the  representation  was 
invariably  tacked  on  to  it.  Reform  was  the  panacea 
for  all  evils,  all  distresses,  the  one  cure  for  all  official 
delinquencies.  The  recent  agitations  had  given  it  a 
fresh  impetus,  and  now  a  definite  agitation  for  it 
commenced.  "We  are  arrived,"  wrote  Cobbett,  "at  a 
new  era.1  Those  sentiments  of  justice  and  humanity, 
and  that  love  of  freedom,  which  have  been  smothered  for 
so  many  years  past  by  the  outcry  against  Jacobins  and 
levellers,  and  by  the  dread  of  revolution  and  bloodshed, 
have  never  been  wholly  extinguished,  and  they  now 
begin  to  be  openly  expressed."  And  Place,  who  was  a 
close  observer  of  contemporary  events,  has  also  left  a 
record  for  us  in  his  opinion  of  the  state  of  things  at  this 
time. 

"When  Mr.  Pitt  came  into  power  in  1784  there 
was  no  public  .  .  .  only  factions.  .  .  .2  The  French 
Revolution  produced  a  great  change ;  it  induced  men  to 
look  beyond  party  squabbles,  to  inquire  whether  there 
was  not  something  of  much  more  consequence  than  the 

1  Political  Register,  30th  March  1816,  2  Place,  MSS.,  Xo.  27,809,  p.  41. 

vol.  xxx.  p.  398. 


372         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"contest  of  the  factions  as  to  which  of  them  should 
possess  the  power  and  emoluments  of  the  Govern- 
ment, and  they  began  slowly  to  detach  themselves 
from  the  factions.  The  number  which  now  began  to 
think  for  themselves  in  respect  to  Government  in- 
creased. Many  men  saw,  or  thought  they  saw,  infor- 
mation was  necessary  to  produce  good  government ; 
they  comprehended  their  own  ignorance,  and  sought 
for  information.  The  number  of  such  persons  was  at 
first  small,  but  it  was  constantly  increasing ;  and  it  was 
obvious  to  every  thinking  man  that  unless  they  could 
be  retained  in  a  state  of  comparative  ignorance,  the 
power  of  the  Government  would  diminish,  and  that, 
too,  in  proportion  to  their  number  and  their  know- 
ledge. .  .  .  Much  knowledge  had  been  acquired  during 
these  thirteen  or  fourteen  years ;  it  was  principally, 
and  indeed  almost  wholly,  confined  to  the  younger 
portion  of  the  community,  and  only  to  part  of  them ; 
but  the  advance  was  obvious." 

With  the  revival  of  the  Platform  in  the  agitation 
for  economy  and  retrenchment  on  the  termination  of 
the  war,  it  was  but  natural  that  the  increased  knowledge, 
self-reliance,  and  energy  of  some  amongst  the  people, 
should  at  the  same  time  endeavour  to  find  voice  through 
the  Platform  for  the  great  object  which  they  had  most 
at  heart — Parliamentary  reform. 

Political  clubs  also  to  a  small  extent  revived.  At 
the  close  of  1814  or  the  beginning  of  1815,  Major 
Cartwright,  the  veteran  reformer,  projected  an  association 
under  the  title  of  the  "  Hampden  Club,"  with  the  object 
of  working  for  Parliamentary  reform.  It  was  this  club 
"  which  gave  the  tone  to  many  places  and  revived  the 
dormant  desire  for  reform." 

"  With  the  decline  of  the  eclat  of  the  conquest  of 


CHAP,  ix  A  GRANT  TO  ROYALTY  373 

France,  discontent  returned  with  distress  in  redoubled 
force.  .  .  .  The  people  looked  to  Parliament  for 
relief,  but  a  boroughmonger  House  of  Commons  was 
not  disposed  to  attempt  anything  not  likely  to  pro- 
mote its  own  immediate  views  of  interest.  Ketrench- 
ment  and  reduction  to  any  great  extent  would  injure 
ministerial  influence.  There  was  scarcely  any  one  in 
the  House  to  stand  up  for  the  people,  and  no  one  who 
had  courage  and  industry  sufficient  to  investigate  and 
expose  the  base  and  pitiful  conduct  of  ministerial 
agents."  1 

In  May  there  were  disturbances  and  riots  in 
Suffolk — mobs,  without  a  Platform,  but  with  a  banner, 
"  Bread  or  Blood."  In  Norfolk  attacks  were  made  on 
millers,  and  bakers'  shops,  and  flour  and  bread  was 
stolen.  In  the  Isle  of  Ely  alarming  riots  took  place. 
The  rioters  were  even  designated  as  "  insurgents,"  not 
suppressed  without  military,  and  powder,  and  ball,  and 
loss  of  life,  to  be  followed  by  a  special  Commission,  and 
hangings,  and  transportation.  In  Bideford,  in  Durham, 
in  Huntingdonshire,  riots  more  or  less  grave  occurred — 
all  for  food.  No  meetings  had  been  held  here ;  there 
was  no  Platforming  to  be  charged  with  incitements  to 
riot ;  nothing  but  those  worst  of  all  causes — distress  and 
hunger. 

One  meeting  which  looms  out  of  this  sad  period 
explains  clearly  the  system  of  government,  against 
which  the  people,  awakening  from  their  long  quiescence, 
were  beginning  to  kick.  Whilst  England  was  in  this 
state  of  dismal  distress,  whilst  mobs  were  exchanging 
shots  with  the  military  in  their  struggles  for  bread,  and 
were  parading  with  "  bread  or  blood "  banners,  and 
people  were  starving,  and  the  Government  at  its  wits' 

1  Place,  MSS.,  No.  27,809,  p.  13. 


374         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

end  for  money,  the  marriage  of  a  royal  princess — the 
Princess  Charlotte  of  Wales — took  place  to  a  German 
Prince,  and  Parliament,  at  the  instigation  of  Ministers, 
passed  an  Act  giving  to  the  newly -married  couple 
£60,000  for  an  outfit  and  £60,000  a  year.  It  was  true 
she  was  heir-presumptive  to  the  throne,  and  that  she 
was  very  popular,  but  the  annual  charge  was  a  heavy 
one,  and  if  her  husband  survived  her,  he  was  to  receive 
an  annuity  of  £50,000.  A  residence  was  also  to  be 
bought  for  them.  A  county  meeting  for  Kent  was 
convened,  and  held  at  Maidstone  on  the  17th  of  June, 
for  the  purpose  of  an  address  congratulating  the  royal 
family  on  this  marriage.1  The  speeches  were  inter- 
rupted with  cries  of  "  Send  up  a  Petition  for  employ- 
ment for  the  poor,"  and  "  We  can't  afford  to  keep 
foreigners,"  and  other  cries,  and  finally  the  meeting 
voted  against  the  Address. 

"  £60,000  a  year  to  the  Princess  Charlotte,"  wrote 
Place.  "  £1 1 50  a  week,  £192  a  day  for  every  working  day 
in  the  year  to  be  given  to  a  woman  who  never  did  any- 
thing for  it — to  a  woman  and  a  man  who  can  never  do 
us  any  service, — a  monstrous  sum  taken  from  the  pockets 
of  people,  some  of  whom  die  of  hunger  in  our  streets." 2 

As  the  summer  went  on,  the  distress  spread, 
commercial  difficulties  reached  an  alarming  height. 
London  took  the  lead  as  regards  meetings,  and  from 
the  Platform  appealed  to  the  Government,  and  to  the 
outer  world.  On  the  21st  of  August  1816  a  large 
meeting  was  held  in  the  Common  Hall,  the  Lord  Mayor 
presiding,  and  a  Petition  to  the  Regent  was  adopted, 
setting  forth  the  state  of  distress  that  prevailed,  and 
asking  him  to  call  Parliament  together. 

1  See   Cobbett's    Political    Register,          2  Place,  MSS.,  27,809,  p.  30. 
vol.  xxx.  p.  801,  etc. 


CHAP,  ix  A  WESTMINSTER  MEETING  375 

One  resolution  set  forth  :  "  That  this  distress  is  the 
natural  result  of  the  corrupt  system  of  Administration, 
and  of  a  long  and  profligate  waste  of  the  public  treasure." 

Another  :  "  That  our  national  distress  imperiously 
demands  the  most  prompt  abolition  of  all  useless  places, 
and  sinecure  pensions,  and  the  immediate  adoption  of 
the  most  rigid  economy." 

Another :  "  That  long  experience  has  but  too  fully 
proved  that  the  only  efficient  hope  of  the  people  is 
in  themselves  united,  to  exercise  their  constitutional 
powers,  in  order  to  secure  a  free,  full,  and  frequent 
representation  of  the  people  in  the  Commons  House  of 
Parliament;  the  want  of  which  representation  having 
been  the  primary  source  of  our  multitudinous  evils,  the 
possession  of  such  a  representation  will  be  the  only 
tranquil,  sure,  and  effectual  mode  of  obtaining  indem- 
nity for  the  past,  and  security  for  the  future.  .  .  .  That 
we  earnestly  recommend  to  every  county,  city,  town,  and 
parish  in  Great  Britain  immediately  to  assemble,  and  to 
direct  their  efforts  to  obtain  a  reduction  of  the  taxes — a 
system  of  rigid  economy  in  every  department  of  the 
Goverment,  the  abolition  of  useless  places  and  sinecures, 
and  a  reform  of  Parliament.1 

On  the  llth  September  a  large  meeting  was  held 
in  Westminster  Palace  Yard.  It  was  addressed  by 
Henry  Hunt,  who  had  by  this  time  risen  into  notoriety 
as  a  Platform  speaker,  and  by  Sir  Francis  Burdett, 
member  for  Westminster,  who  was  the  successor  to 
Fox,  filling  the  rdle  of  moderate  and  respectable 
democracy  on  the  Platform,  and  of  extreme  liberalism 
and  independence  in  the  House. 

A  short  summary  of  their  speeches  on  this  occasion 
will  convey  something  of  the  spirit  of  the  Platform  at 

1  The  Examiner,  25th  August  1816   p.  543 


376        THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

this  time,  as  displayed  by  some  of  its  most  extreme 
votaries. 

Hunt  said:  "He  would  speak  plain  facts,  and  call 
things  by  their  right  names.  The  general  distress  was 
now  acknowledged  by  every  class  of  persons,  except  the 
tax-gatherers,  and  those  who  lived  on  them.  There  was 
no  doubt  that  all  our  distresses  had  their  origin  in  a 
want  of  a  proper  representation  of  the  people.  The 
immediate  cause  of  our  distress  was,  the  carrying  on  for 
upwards  of  twenty  years  a  war,  cruel,  and  bloody,  and 
unjust,  against  the  liberty  of  all  mankind — a  war,  the 
expense  of  which  had  ruined  our  commerce,  and  reduced 
us  to  beggary  and  distress."1  .  .  .  He  then  proceeded  to 
inveigh  against  sinecures  and  placemen  :  "  Would  it  be 
believed  that  upwards  of  £200,000  of  the  people's  money 
was  paid  to  placemen  having  seats  in  the  House  of 
Commons."  He  proposed  that  a  Petition  should  be 
addressed  to  the  Prince  Regent  to  call  Parliament 
together — "  Not  as  it  had  usually  been  called  together  to 
divide  the  spoils  of  the  people  amongst  themselves,  but 
to  receive  the  Petitions  of  the  people  and  to  attend  to 
them.  ...  It  was  time  the  voice  of  the  people  should 
be  heard  and  attended  to." 

Sir  Francis  Burdett  said :  "  That  meeting  showed 
the  spirit  of  Westminster,  and  he  trusted  that  it  was 
but  a  sample  of  that  which  would  be  shown  in  every 
part  of  the  kingdom.  Their  enemy  was  formidable, 
and  deeply  intrenched  behind  forms  of  law,  as  well  as 
rows  of  bayonets,  and  nothing  would  conquer  that 
enemy  but  a  firm  union  among  all  classes  of  the 
country.  .  .  .  No  Englishman  ought  to  look  to  the 
sham  causes  of  the  distress  held  out  to  them  by  the 
boroughmongers ;  the  real  cause  consisted  in  the  cor- 

1  The  Examiner,  15th  September  1816. 


CHAP,  ix  A  COUNTY  CORNWALL  MEETING  377 

rupt  state  of  the  representation  of  the  people.  .  .  . 
Let  it  be  remembered  that  nothing  was  more  dreadful 
in  the  ears  of  the  oppressors  than  the  voice  of  the 
oppressed."  He  inveighed  against  the  national  debt, 
against  the  oligarchy  in  the  House  of  Commons  :  "  That 
oligarchy  had  a  hundred  hands  in  every  man's  pocket, 
and  almost  everything,  great  or  small,  found  its  way 
into  its  immense  net.  .  .  .  He  trusted  that  there  would 
be  meetings  in  every  county,  and  every  great  town  in 
England.  This  oligarchy  would  not  give  up  its  plunder 
unless  it  were  forced." 

As  the  autumn  went  on  meetings  for  Parliamentary 
reform  became  more  frequent.  Early  in  October  there 
was  a  meeting  of  some  7000  to  8000  persons  at  Bolton ; 
a  little  later  one  at  Southwark. 

On  the  29th  of  October  a  county  Cornwall  meeting 
was  held  at  Bodmin,  the  High  Sheriff  presided.  "  The 
Shire  Hall  was  completely  filled."1  Mr.  Rashleigh 
made  a  most  able  and  argumentative  speech  : 2  "  The 
interest  excited  by  his  observations,"  wrote  the  reporter, 
"  was  evident  by  the  profound  attention  of  the  meeting, 
only  interrupted  by  those  bursts  of  applause  which,  like 
electric  sparks,  were  continually  elicited  from  all  present 
by  the  convincing  and  energetic  eloquence  by  which  he 
traced  all  our  privations  and  sufferings  to  their  true 
source — the  corrupt  influence  exercised  by  the  Govern- 
ment over  the  majority  of  a  House  of  Commons  neither 
participating  the  feelings  nor  expressing  the  sentiments 
of  the  people  because  not  chosen  by  them."  The  prin- 
cipal resolution  declared  that  the  abuses  in  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  country  were  to  be  traced  to  the  defective 
representation  of  the  people,  and  a  Petition  was 

1  See    The  Morning  Chronicle,    5th  -  For  his   speech  see   The  Morning 

November  1816.  Chronicle  of  9th  November. 


378         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

adopted.  On  the  same  day  a  great  meeting  was  held 
at  Glasgow,  of  which  some  details  are  interesting  as 
showing  what  use  was  being  made  of  the  Platform  to 
teach  and  elevate  the  people.1  The  meeting  was  "  the 
largest  that  ever  took  place  for  any  political  purpose 
in  Scotland ;  about  40,000  persons  were  at  it.  The 
greater  part  of  those  present  were  of  course  workmen, 
but  such  was  the  general  order  that  not  the  slightest 
injury  was  done  to  any  article  on  the  ground "  ("  not 
even  the  boxwood  border  of  the  enclosure,"  says  the 
sympathetic  reporter,  with  some  pride),  "  and  the  whole 
was  conducted  with  a  decorum  which  strikingly  proved 
how  groundless  had  been  the  prejudice  against  popular 
meetings." 

Among  the  speakers  was  a  Mr.  Gray,  who,  after 
referring  to  the  "  overwhelming  load  of  indescribable 
calamity  that  existed/'  said  :  "  Retrenchment  and 
reform  constitute  the  only  remedy  for  the  present 
distress,  and  to  the  attainment  of  these  indispens- 
able objects  let  all  our  efforts  —  let  the  efforts  of 
the  whole  nation  —  be  steadily  and  constitutionally 
directed.  Let  the  cry  of  '  Retrenchment  and  Reform ' 
be  sounded  at  the  foot  of  the  throne  from  every  corner 
of  the  island.  .  .  .  The  whole  system  of  expenditure 
must  be  reduced.  All  those  noble,  sturdy  beggars 
must  also  be  discharged,  who  have  fostered  themselves 
like  leeches  upon  the  State,  to  suck  from  it  every 
remaining  portion  of  its  vitality.  The  people  must 
have  their  legal  share  in  the  Government  of  the  country 
— they  must  have  representatives  of  their  own  choosing. 
Nothing  short  of  a  thorough  retrenchment  ought  to 
satisfy  them — nothing  short  of  a  radical  Reform  can 

1  See  The  Morning  Chronicle  of  5th  November  1816,  which  quotes  the  account 
from  The  Glasgow  Chronicle. 


CHAP,  ix  A  NOTTINGHAM  PETITION  379 

save  them.  The  sacrifices  they  have  made  deserve 
some  consideration.  Their  sufferings  demand  it.  ... 
Let  all  the  wise  and  the  virtuous  unite.  If  the  union 
be  constitutional,  and  for  constitutional  objects,  who 
shall  dare  to  control  or  counteract  it.  While  truth  lies 
at  the  centre,  the  national  mind  must  thither  gravitate. 
A  nation  guided  by  truth  is  not  to  be  resisted.  Do  we 
calculate  on  too  much  when  we  expect  retrenchment 
and  reform  from  discussion  and  petitioning?  Are  we 
without  example  or  encouragement  in  looking  for  the 
recovery  of  our  lost  liberties  and  prosperity  from  the  dif- 
fusion of  knowledge,  that  best  light  of  the  mind  ?  How 
triumphed  Luther,  an  obscure  monk,  over  combined 
potentates,  one  of  them  wearing  the  triple  crown  ?  In 
defiance  of  their  armies,  spread  he  not  religious  reform 
over  whole  nations  ?  And  was  it  not  by  bold  discus- 
sion, and  a  resolute  diffusion  of  knowledge,  that  our 
illustrious  countryman,  John  Knox,  redeemed  Scotland 
from  the  miserable  follies  and  abominable  superstitions 
of  Popery  ?  To  doubt,  therefore,  the  efficacy  of  union 
and  discussion  is  unworthy  of  an  enlightened  or  a  con- 
stant mind." 

Nottingham  also  at  this  same  time  held  a  meeting 
and  adopted  a  Petition  to  the  Regent,  which  gave  a 
graphic  picture  of  the  distress,  and  which  was  rather 
outspoken  in  its  terms. 

"  Our  manufacturers  withdrawing  their  remaining 
capital  from  engagements  they  find  to  be  unproductive 
or  ruinous,  our  artisans  and  labourers  destitute  of 
employment,  our  workhouses  crowded  beyond  all  pre- 
cedent, and  our  poor-rates  swelled  to  an  extent  which, 
if  not  speedily  alleviated,  must  have  the  effect  of  in- 
volving us  in  total  and  irremediable  ruin. 

"  At  a  period  of  national  distress  like  the  present, 


380         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"  when  we  are  called  upon  to  sacrifice  the  comforts  of  our 
families  to  answer  the  demands  of  the  Government, 
when  the  iron  hand  of  taxation  is  extorting  from  the 
rich  man  his  last  guinea,  and  ransacking  the  poor 
man's  scrip  for  his  solitary  penny,  to  see  a  voracious 
band  of  placemen,  pensioners,  and  sinecurists  wallow- 
ing in  the  wealth  thus  wrung  from  the  hard  earnings 
of  honest  industry,  is  a  violation  of  common  decency 
without  a  parallel  in  the  annals  of  corruption ;  nor 
can  it  surprise  your  Royal  Highness  that  your  sub- 
jects murmur  with  discontent  and  remonstrate  with 
indignation." l 

Hostile  comment  may  be  made  on  such  resolutions 
and  such  speeches,  but  it  is  to  be  remembered  in 
extenuation,  first,  that  "in  a  state  of  suffering  men 
cannot  be  expected  to  choose  their  expressions  with  a 
courtly  precision,  but  the  complaint  itself  may  be  well 
founded,  however  unguardedly  expressed "  ;  and  next, 
that  the  people  were  being  almost  entirely  left  to  their 
own  devices.  Except  men  like  Major  Cartwright,  who 
was  a  feeble  though  well-meaning  man,  and  Henry 
Hunt,  they  had  few  leaders.  In  London  Sir  Francis 
Burdett,  and  a  few  other  gentlemen  of  position,  took  a 
considerable  part  in  the  agitation.  Here  and  there,  in 
some  of  the  counties,  there  were  also  some  able  men  of 
respectable  position  who  did  the  same ;  but  their 
influence  did  not  extend  beyond  their  own  immediate 
neighbourhood,  and  in  the  large  towns  the  people  had 
absolutely  no  one  to  guide  them  or  to  help  them. 

"  Do  the  nobles  of  the  land,  our  hereditary  guardians, 
do  they  call  public  meetings  ?  Do  they  or  any  of  them 
attend  public  meetings  to  instruct  the  people,  and 
point  out  the  road  to  good  government,  to  independ- 

1  The  Examiner,  13th  October  1816. 


CHAP,  ix  THE  PLATFORM  AND  RIOTS  381 

ence,  to  happiness  ?  No,  not  they.  They  call  no 
meetings ;  they  attend  no  meetings ;  they  do  all  they 
can  to  prevent  meetings ;  they  would  have  all  quiet — 
quiet  as  death."  l 

The  leading  reformers  at  this  time  were  of  a  dif- 
ferent class  from  the  aristocracy.  Bamford.  in  his 
Passages  in  the  Life  of  a  Radical,  has  described  those 
of  Lancashire ;  in  other  places  they  were  much  the 
same. 

"  A  cotton  manufacturer,"  "  letterpress  printer," 
"shoemaker,"  "stonecutter,"  "weaver,"  "hatter," 
"  dogger,"  "  tailor,"  "  draper."  —  "  Such,"  he  says, 
"  were  the  names  and  conditions  of  all  whom  I  recollect 
as  standing  prominently  forward  in  those  days,  through 
evil  and  through  good  report,  in  one  district  of  the 
country.  Such  were  they  in  life's  station  who  cast  the 
seeds  of  living  bread  in  the  wilds  of  Galilee." 

However  hostilely  the  Government  and  Tory  party 
may  have  regarded  the  meetings  which  were  taking 
place  throughout  the  country,  one  good  effect  was 
following  them.  Cobbett  has  described  it. 

He  wrote  :  "  The  country,  instead  of  being  disturbed, 
as  the  truly  seditious  writers  on  the  side  of  corruption 
would  fain  make  us  believe,  instead  of  being  irritated  by 
the  agitation  of  the  question  of  reform,  is  kept  by  the 
hope  which  reform  holds  out  to  it,  in  a  state  of  tranquil- 
lity wholly  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  the  world  under 
a  similar  pressure  of  suffering.  Of  this  fact  the  sad  scenes 
at  Dundee  are  a  strong  and  remarkable  instance.  At 
the  great  and  populous  towns  of  Norwich,  Manchester, 
Paisley,  Glasgow,  Wigan,  Bolton,  Liverpool,  and  many 
others,  where  the  people  are  suffering  in  a  degree  that 

1  Hone's  Prospectus  of  his  Register  quoted  by  Quarterly  Review,  vol.  xvi. 
p.  546  (1817). 


382         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"  makes  the  heart  sink  within  one  to  think  of,  they 
have  had  their  meetings  to  petition  for  reform ;  they 
have  agreed  on  petitions ;  hope  has  been  left  in  their 
bosoms ;  they  have  been  inspired  with  patience  and 
fortitude,  and  all  is  tranquil.  But  in  Dundee,  where  a 
partial  meeting  had  been  held  early  in  November,  and 
where  a  gentleman  who  moved  for  reform  had  been 
borne  down,  there  violence  has  broken  forth,  houses 
have  been  plundered,  and  property  and  life  exposed  to 
all  sorts  of  perils." 

And  again,  a  little  later,  he  recurs  to  the  same 
matter :  "  Rioting  has  ceased  as  meetings  for  reform 
have  increased.  At  Dundee,  and  in  the  Isle  of  Ely,  and 
in  Suffolk,  and  at  Birmingham,  where  there  have  been 
riots,  there  have  been  no  meetings  for  petitioning.  In 
short,  meetings  for  petitioning  have  put  an  end  to  riot- 
ing. And  this  is  very  natural ;  because,  when  meetings 
are  held,  and  the  people's  attention  is  drawn  towards 
the  real  causes  of  their  misery,  they  at  once  see  that 
the  remedy  is  not  a  riotous  attack  upon  the  property 
of  their  neighbours,  and  they  wait  with  patience  and 
fortitude  to  hear  what  answer  Parliament  will  give  to 
their  Petitions."  l 

Bamford  attributes  much  of  the  improvement  to 
another  cause,  namely,  Cobbett's  writings.  "  Their 
influence,"  he  says,  "  was  speedily  visible ;  he  directed 
his  readers  to  the  true  cause  of  their  sufferings — mis- 
government  ;  and  to  its  proper  corrective — Parliamen- 
tary reform.  Riots  soon  became  scarce,  and  from  that 
time  they  have  never  obtained  their  ancient  vogue  with 
the  labourers  of  this  country." ; 

From  the  provinces  the  scene  of  Platform  action 
was  once  more  transferred  to  the  metropolis,  and  rapidly 

1  llth  January  1817,  Political  Register,  p.  40.         2  Bamford,  vol.  i.  p.  7. 


CHAP,  ix  HUNT  AT  SPA  FIELDS  3^3 

became  more  interesting  and  exciting.  Here  Henry 
Hunt  was  taking  a  conspicuous  part. 

Place  has  given  a  description  of  this  celebrity.  "  The 
reformers,"  he  says,  "  were  active  in  their  endeavours 
to  induce  the  people  to  conduct  themselves  peaceably, 
and  incessantly  to  petition  for  reform  as  the  only  means 
by  which  such  relief  as  was  in  the  power  of  the  Govern- 
ment to  grant  could  be  obtained.1 

"They  succeeded  to  a  great  extent  in  exciting 
a  spirit  of  co-operation,  which  was,  however,  much 
damaged  by  the  conduct  of  Henry  Hunt,  who  had 
placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the  common  people.  He 
was  impudent,  active,  vulgar ;  in  almost  all  respects 
the  best  mob  orator  of  the  day,  if  not,  indeed,  the  best 
which  had  ever  existed." 

On  the  15th  November  1816  a  meeting  was  held  in 
the  open  air  at  Spa  Fields,  "  To  take  into  consideration 
the  propriety  of  petitioning  the  Prince  Eegent  upon 
the  distressed  state  of  the  countrv." 2  The  meeting  was 

«/  o 

composed  of  the  working  people,  at  the  head  of  whom 
Henry  Hunt  had  placed  himself.  Hunt  took  the  lead 
at  it,  "and  used  his  utmost  exertions  to  inflame  the 
passions  of  the  people  against  every  man  who  had 
shown  himself  at  all  desirous  to  do  them  service." 3  At 
about  half-past  twelve  o'clock  a  hackney  coach  contain- 
ing four  persons  was  seen  to  drive  into  the  Fields.  The 
Reverend  Mr.  Parkes  mounted  on  the  roof  and  made  a 
speech.  He  exhorted  them  to  be  firm  and  bold  in  the 
present  important  crisis.  "  Now  was  the  time  when  the 
people  should  exert  themselves  to  their  utmost  for  the 
maintenance  of  their  rights  and  liberties,  and  be  like 
the  bursting  of  waters,  carrying  all  before  them.4  .  .  . 

1  Place,  MSS.,  27,809,  p.  16.  4  For  full  report  see  The  Examiner, 

2  The  Examiner,  1816,  p.  730.  1816,  p.  730. 
'3  Place,  MSS.,  27,809,  p.  22. 


384         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"  The  cause  was  good,  and  their  enemies  were  possessed 
with  a  trembling  heart.  Now  was  the  time,  the  im- 
portant moment,  when  the  tyrants  should  be  made  to 
suffer ;  and  if  the  nation  were  unanimous,  bold,  and 
intrepid,  strengthening  themselves  with  a  just  sense  of 
their  own  injuries,  the  supporters  of  corruption  would 
tremble  before  them." 

About  one  o'clock  Hunt  appeared.  His  approach 
was  preceded  by  a  three-coloured  flag  and  a  cap  hoisted 
on  a  pole.  He  commenced  his  harangue  from  one  of 
the  windows  of  the  front  room  of  the  public-house. 

"  They  had  met  for  the  purpose  of  petitioning  the 
Prince  Regent  and  the  Legislature  for  some  effectual 
relief  to  those  growing  miseries,  the  tale  of  which  would 
require  a  month  to  tell,  and  a  month  fully  to  understand. 
.  .  .  What  was  the  cause  of  the  want  of  employment  ? 
Taxation.  What  was  the  cause  of  taxation  ?  Corrup- 
tion. It  was  corruption  that  had  enabled  the  borough- 
mongers  to  wage  that  bloody  war  which  had  for  its 
object  the  destruction  of  the  liberties  of  all  countries, 
but  principally  of  our  own.  .  .  .  They  had  now  in  their 
view  the  British  Bastile  (pointing  to  Coldbathfield's 
prison),  where  so  much  tyranny  had  been  formerly 
exercised,  and  to  which  so  many  miserable  victims  had 
been  consigned.  .  .  .  All  ranks  save  the  children  of 
corruption,  who  fattened  on  the  vitals  of  the  country, 
were  alike  involved  in  one  common  distress.  .  .  .  He 
knew  the  superiority  of  mental  over  physical  force  ;  nor 
would  he  counsel  any  resort  to  the  latter  till  the  former 
had  been  found  ineffectual.  Before  physical  force  was 
applied  to,  it  was  their  duty  to  petition,  to  remonstrate, 
to  call  aloud  for  timely  reformation.  Those  who 
resisted  the  just  demands  of  the  people  were  the  real 
friends  of  confusion  and  bloodshed  ;  .  .  .  but  if  the  fatal 


CHAP,  ix  THE  SPA  FIELDS  MEETINGS  385 

day  should  be  destined  to  arrive,  he  assured  them  that 
if  he  knew  anything  of  himself,  he  would  not  be  found 
concealed  behind  a  counter,  or  sheltering  himself  in  the 
rear.  Everything  that  concerned  their  subsistence  or 
comforts  was  taxed.  Was  not  their  loaf  taxed  ?  was  not 
their  beer  taxed  ?  were  not  their  shirts  taxed  ?  was  not 
everything  they  ate,  drank,  wore,  and  even  said,  taxed  ? 
What  impudence,  what  insolence  was  it  then  in  the 
corrupt  and  profligate  minions  of  Government  to  say 
that  the  people  suffered  nothing  by  taxation.  If  there 
were  no  taxes  the  labourer  would  have  his  quartern 
loaf  for  4d.,  his  pot  of  beer  for  2d.,  his  bushel  of  salt  for 
2s.  6d.,  his  soap,  candles,  sugar,  tea,  and  other  articles 
for  half  their  present  price.  It  was  necessary  to  have 
some  taxes,  he  allowed,  but  every  dictate  of  justice,  every 
right  of  the  people  called  for  their  reduction.  They 
were  imposed  for  no  purpose  in  which  the  nation  was 
interested.  They  were  imposed  by  the  authority  of  a 
boroughmongering  faction,  who  thought  of  nothing  but 
oppressing  the  people,  and  subsisting  on  the  plunder 
wrung  from  their  miseries."  He  produced  a  book,  which, 
he  said,  "  contained  a  list  of  those  who  gorged  and 
fattened  on  the  spoils  of  an  oppressed  nation — of  those 
who  devoured  the  taxes,  under  which  they  were 
crushed  to  the  earth."  He  then  went  on  to  inveigh 
against  pensions  and  sinecures,  of  which  he  mentioned 
several  instances.  "  Taxes  appeared  to  be  extended  not 
only  to  paying  the  judges,  etc.,  but  in  pensioning  the 
fathers,  the  brothers,  the  mothers,  the  sisters,  the 
cousins,  and  bastards  of  the  boroughmongers,  and  all 
sorts  of  paupers."  He  referred  to  "an  impudent  fellow 
called  George  Canning — a  man  who  had  the  audacity,  the 
unparalleled  insolence,  to  call  the  people  of  England  a 
swinish  multitude,  offscourings,  and  all  sorts  of  oppro- 


386         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

brious  epithets.  Swinish  multitude  was  the  most 
delicate  name  they  received.  (Great  commotion).  .  .  . 
It  was  the  duty  of  every  man  to  petition  for  a  reform  in 
Parliament."  He  abused  the  Whigs  and  "  the  Tories," 
and  concluded  with  exhorting  the  advocates  for  reform 
to  exert  all  their  efforts  to  attain  that  most  desirable 
object,  and  he  moved  the  adoption  of  a  Petition  to  the 
Regent. 

The  Petition  besought  the  Regent  "  To  take  into  his 
consideration  the  burden  of  this  suffering,  and  patient, 
but  starving  people  ;  and  implored  his  Royal  Highness 
to  cause  Parliament  to  be  assembled,  in  order  that 
measures  might  be  adopted  to  redress  the  evils  described, 
to  feed  the  hungry,  and  to  clothe  the  naked,  so  that  the 
unhappy  and  starving  people  might  be  preserved  from 
desperation ;  and,  above  all,  to  listen,  before  it  was  too 
late,  to  the  earnest  and  repeated  prayers  of  the  nation."1 

The  Petition  was  adopted,  and  after  some  further 
speeches  the  meeting  dispersed,  being  adjourned  to  the 
2d  December.  When  it  was  over,  a  small  mob  pro- 
ceeded through  some  parts  of  the  town  and  robbed 
some  bakers'  shops.  "  They  were,  however,  quickly 
dispersed,  and  by  nine  o'clock  all  was  quiet.  Bodies 
of  the  military  were  in  attendance  in  various  quarters." 

A  meeting  of  the  Common  Council  of  London,  held 
on  the  28th  November,  and  presided  over  by  the  Lord 
Mayor,  again  bore  testimony  to  the  prevailing  distress. 

One  of  the  resolutions  set  forth,  "  That  the  distress 
and  misery  which  for  so  many  years  has  been  progres- 
sively accumulating,  has  at  length  become  insupportable. 
It  is  no  longer  partially  felt,  nor  limited  to  one  portion 
of  the  Empire  ;  the  commercial,  the  manufacturing,  and 
the  agricultural  interests  are  equally  sinking  under  its 

1  Tlw  Examiner,  1816,  p.  732. 


CHAP,  ix  THE  SPA  FIELDS  INSURRECTION  387 

irresistible  pressure,  and  it  has  become  impossible  to  find 
employment  for  a  large  mass  of  the  population,  much 
less  to  bear  up  against  our  present  enormous  burthens."  J 

Another  resolution  set  forth  a  list  of  the  causes  of 
the  distress,  "all  arising  from  the  corrupt  and  inadequate 
state  of  the  representation  of  the  people  in  Parliament, 
whereby  all  constitutional  control  over  the  servants  of 
the  Crown  has  been  lost,  and  Parliaments  have  become 
subservient  to  the  will  of  Ministers."  A  Petition  for  the 
assembling  of  Parliament  was  adopted. 

The  2d  December  was  the  day  to  which  the  Spa 
Field's  meeting  of  the  15th  November  had  been 
adjourned.  The  meeting  was  fixed  for  one  o'clock  at  the 
same  place. 

"  An  hour  before  the  time  named  for  that  meeting," 
says  Place,  "  a  crazy  creature  called  Dr.  Watson,  a 
profligate  son  of  his,  as  crazy  as  his  father,  and  several 
of  their  associates  mounted  tricoloured  cockades,  and 
endeavoured  by  their  speeches  to  persuade  the  people 
there  assembled  to  revolt  against  the  Government."2 

At  the  conclusion  of  a  violent  speech,  young  Watson 
exclaimed,  "  If  they  will  not  give  us  what  we  want, 
shall  we  not  take  it  ? "  and  seizing  a  tricolour  flag,  he 
jumped  out  of  the  waggon  in  which  he  was,  among  the 
people,  and  "  led  off  a  portion  of  the  rabble  to  take 
possession  of  the  Tower  of  London,  and  overturn  the 
Government." 

His  invitation,  however,  was  only  accepted  by  a 
very  small  portion  of  those  present — some  few  hundreds 
at  most.  These  attacked  some  gunsmiths'  shops,  shot 
at,  and  wounded  a  man  who  resisted  them,  and  stole 
some  arms.3 

1  The,  Examiner,  1816,  p.  765.  3  Bamford,  vol.  i.  p.  25. 

2  Place,  MSS.,  27,809,  p.  22. 


388         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

The  intended  attack  on  the  Tower  resolved  itself 
into  one  man,  Preston  by  name,  mounting  a  wall,  and 
summoning  the  guard  to  surrender.  "  The  men  gazed  at 
him — laughed  ;  no  one  fired  a  shot ;  and  soon  after  he 
fell  down,  or  was  pulled  off  by  his  companions,  who 
thought  (no  doubt)  he  had  acted  the  fool  long  enough." 

The  rebels  fled  at  the  first  sight  of  a  dragoon. 
Several  arrests  were  made,  quiet  was  restored,  and  the 
attempted  "  insurrection  "  was  quickly  at  an  end. 

The  whole  business  was  from  beginning  to  end 
utterly  contemptible,  so  far  as  any  possible  effect  on 
the  Government  was  concerned.  It  was  devoid  of  a 
single  capable  leader — the  few  desperate  men  who  took 
the  lead  were  miserably  poor — the  ammunition  for  the 
capture  of  the  Tower,  the  overthrow  of  the  troops,  and 
the  subversion  of  the  Government  was  all  stowed  in 
"  an  old  stocking." 

Place  says :  "  There  was  manifest  danger  to  the 
lives  and  properties  of  the  peaceable  citizens,  yet  this 
contemptible  set  of  fools  and  miscreants,  which  twenty 
constables  could  have  dispersed  in  five  minutes  and 
taken  the  leaders  into  custody,  were  permitted  to  march 
through  the  city  unmolested/' a 

"  The  regular  meeting,"  he  continues,  "  was  held  at 
the  time  appointed.  Mr.  Hunt  took  the  chair,  and  the 
first  resolution  passed  had  reference  to  the  proceedings 
of  those  who  had  left  the  meeting  for  mischievous 
purposes.  It  was  worded  thus  : 2 

Resolved — "  That  it  is  always  a  proof  of  the  badness 
of  any  cause  or  any  argument,  when  its  advocates  resort 
to  acts  of  violence ;  and  therefore  we  condemn,  not  only 
all  breaches  of  the  peace,  but  all  demonstrations  of  a 

1  Place,  MSS.,  27,809,  p.  22.  2  See   The    Examiner  ;    also  Place, 

MSS.,  27,809,  p.  23. 


CHAP,  ix  THE  SPA  FIELDS  MEETING  389 

wish  to  commit  acts  of  violence  against  any  of  our 
opponents ;  and  we  shall  regard  as  the  worst  enemies 
of  ourselves  and  of  our  country  all  those  (if  any  such 
there  should  be)  who  may  be  base  enough  to  commit 
any  such  acts  on  this  occasion." 

Other  resolutions  having  been  passed,  and  a  Petition 
to  the  House  of  Commons  having  been  agreed  to,  "  the 
meeting  quietly  dispersed."  Place  goes  on  to  say  :  "  Yet 
it  will  be  seen  that  in  all  the  speeches  in  Parliament, 
and  in  all  the  proceedings  in  courts  of  law,  the  conduct 
of  some  who  appeared  on  the  ground  before  the  time 
appointed  for  the  meeting,  and  went  away  before  the 
meeting  commenced,  is  spoken  of  as  THE  meeting,  whilst 
THE  actual  peaceable  meeting  is  unnoticed,  the  rioters 
being  alone  called  the  meeting  in  Spa  Fields." l 

It  has  been  necessary  to  enter  into  these  details, 
because  it  is  desirable  to  clear  the  Platform  from  the 
allegations  afterwards  brought  against  it  in  connection 
with  this  meeting,  and  also  from  the  discredit  and 
stigma  which  the  Government  endeavoured  to  fix  on 
the  whole  movement  for  Parliamentary  reform,  by 
representing  such  men  as  the  two  Watsons,  Thistle  wood, 
and  others  of  that  set,  men  who  afterwards  committed 
high  treason  and  were  hanged,  as  leaders  and  partici- 
pators therein.  Hunt,  even,  who  was  extreme  enough, 
quickly  realised  what  they  were,  and  would  have  nothing 
to  say  to  them. 

Of  the  agitation  generally  Cobbett  has  given  us  a 
summary.  In  January  1817  he  wrote:  "There  have 
been  held  meetings  at  which  Petitions  have  been  signed 
for  a  reform  of  Parliament  by  more,  I  believe,  than  half 
a  million  of  men.  And  at  no  one  of  these  meetings  has 

1  See  also  Hunt's  own  account  of  the       asserts  that  the  rioters  had  no  connec- 
meeting  given  in   his  Memoirs.     The      tion  with  the  meeting. 
Morning  Chronicle  of  3d  December  also 


390         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"any  riot  taken  place."1  .  .  .  And  commenting  on  these 
meetings,  he  remarked  :  "  The  mass  of  information  which 
has  been  discovered  at  the  several  public  meetings  seems 
quite  surprising.  .  .  .  The  accounts  of  those  proceedings 
show  a  degree  of  wisdom  and  talent  very  far  surpassing 
anything  that  was  ever  brought  forth  at  public  meetings 
in  this  or  any  other  country.2  At  Nottingham  the 
corporate  body,  like  men  of  sense,  have  cordially  acted 
with  the  people ;  but  at  Manchester,  Wigan,  Boston, 
Lynn,  Glasgow,  Paisley,  Renfrew,  and  divers  other 
places,  all  persons  in  authority  have  either  thrown 
obstacles  in  the  way,  or  refused  to  participate.  This, 
however,  has  not  at  all  held  the  people  in  check.  They 
know  their  rights,  and  they  have  come  forward  and 
exercised  them  with  talent  and  spirit,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  with  the  greatest  possible  prudence." 

For  us  now  the  material  fact  is,  that  first  the 
Government,  and  somewhat  later,  Parliament,  found 
themselves  face  to  face  with  such  a  development  of 
the  Platform,  and  such  an  agitation  for  Parliamentary 
reform,  as  had  never  before  been  seen. 

Great  accordingly  was  their  wrath ;  and  what  still 
further  excited  their  anger  was  the  fact  that,  following 
somewhat  the  precedent  of  1780,  delegates  from  various 
petitioning  bodies  for  reform  met  in  London  for  the 
purpose  of  arranging  as  to  the  presentation  of  the  Peti- 
tions, and  of  discussing  a  Bill  to  be  presented  to  the 
House  of  Commons  embracing  the  reforms  sought  for. 
They  met  on  the  22d  January  1817  at  the  invitation  of 
the  Hampden  Club  of  London,  of  which  Sir  F.  Burdett 
was  the  chairman.  The  number  of  delegates  was  not 
great.  Some  seventeen  or  eighteen  had  been  "  elected  "  ; 

1  Political  Register,   January   1817,  -  Ibid.,    21st    December    1816,    p. 

p.  39.  666. 


CHAP,  ix          OUTRAGE  ON  THE  PRINCE  REGENT  391 

others  assumed  the  title  of  delegate  without  any  nomi- 
nation :  Hunt,  Cobbett.  Major  Cartwright  were  among 
the  number,  but  the  meeting  was  a  contemptible  affair, 
and  they  squabbled  bitterly  among  themselves. 

"  Ministers,"  writes  Place,  "  took  advantage  of  this 
absurd  proceeding.  The  meeting  of  deputies  wras  treated 
as  something  bordering  on  open  rebellion,  and  was  by 
far  the  most  useful  incident  for  enabling  them  to  alarm 
the  timid.  The  ministerial  newspapers  were  indefatig- 
able in  magnifying  every  movement  into  treason  and 
sedition ;  all  the  talent,  all  the  acrimony,  all  the  malig- 
nity and  falsehood  which  the  most  venal,  and  corrupt, 
and  base  among  the  basest  of  mankind,  as  some  of  the 
fellows  connected  with  the  newspapers  are,  had  their 
full  swing  against  the  reformers.  Every  loyal  slave, 
every  one  whose  situation  in  corporations  was  gainful, 
or  who  expected  to  gain,  was  active  in  his  way ; 
nothing  was,  in  fact,  left  undone  which  a  vile  adminis- 
tration, to  which  no  one  thing  of  any  kind,  however 
mean  and  base,  was  unacceptable,  which  was  likely  to 
promote  its  purposes,  and  yet,  after  all,  the  alarm  did 
not  come  up  to  their  expectation."  * 

And  now  history  was  once  more  to  repeat  itself, 
with  the  most  extraordinary  fidelity.  The  Platform 
had  showed  itself,  as  in  1790-95,  a  popular  power,  only 
this  time  a  far  greater  power  than  it  was  then.  It  was 
again  to  be  struck  down  by  Acts  of  Parliament,  worded 
almost  exactly  the  same  as  those  in  1795,  and  supported 
by  speeches  almost  a  repetition  of  those  then  delivered. 
Even  to  the  very  incident  which  was  the  starting-point 
of  the  excuse  for  the  repressive  legislation  of  1795,  the 
similitude  between  the  two  periods  was  absolutely  perfect. 

1  Place,  MSS.,  27,809,  p.  34. 


392         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

On  the  28th  of  January  1817,  when  the  Prince 
Regent  was  returning  from  the  House  of  Lords  after 
opening  the  session  of  Parliament,  and  was  "  passing  at 
the  back  of  the  garden  of  Carlton  House,  the  glass  of 
his  carriage  was  broken  by  a  stone,  as  some  represented 
it,  or  by  two  stone  balls,  fired  from  an  air  gun,  as  others 
stated  it,  which  appeared  to  have  been  aimed  at  his 
Royal  Highness."1 

Parliament,  shocked  by  the  outrage,  immediately 
adopted  addresses  of  congratulation  to  him  on  his 
escape.  The  Regent  sent  a  message  of  thanks  to  each 
House,  and  followed  it  up,  a  few  days  afterwards,  with 
another,  saying  that  he  had  directed  that  there  should 
be  laid  before  them  papers  containing  information 
"  respecting  certain  practices,  meetings,  and  combina- 
tions in  the  metropolis,  and  in  different  parts  of  the 
kingdom,  evidently  calculated  to  endanger  the  public 
tranquillity,  to  alienate  the  affections  of  his  Majesty's 
subjects  from  his  Majesty's  person  and  Government, 
and  to  bring  into  hatred  and  contempt  the  whole  sys- 
tem of  our  laws  and  Constitution." 2 

In  accordance  with  the  well-worn  precedent  of  1795 
and  subsequent  years,  Secret  Select  Committees  were, 
appointed  to  consider  this  information.  While  they 
were  investigating  the  subject,  and  considering  their 
report,  Petition  after  Petition  for  Parliamentary  reform 
poured  into  both  Houses  of  Parliament,  more  especially 
into  the  House  of  Commons. 

The  first  of  the  Petitions  presented  was  from  over 
15,000  people  at  Bristol.  It  and  several  others  were 
presented  by  Lord  Cochrane.  "  The  deputies,  together 
with  perhaps  20,000  persons,  having  waited  till  it  was 

1  See  Lord  Sidmouth's  speech,  Han-          2  Hansard,  vol.  xxxv.  p.  173. 
sard,  vol.  xxxv.  p.  4. 


CHAP,  ix  THE  RECEPTION  OF  PETITIONS  393 

time  for  Lord  Cochrane  to  go  to  the  House,  forced  him 
into  a  chair,  and  thus  they  carried  him  to  the  hall  door 
with  the  Bristol  Petition  in  his  arms,  in  a  roll  of  parch- 
ment about  the  size  of  a  tolerable  barrel." l  It  was 
permitted  to  lie  upon  the  table,  "  where  it  still  lies," 
adds  Cobbett  some  time  after,  "  ungranted  its  prayer, 
undiscussed  its  contents,  unanswered  its  allegations." 

The  House  of  Commons,  the  people's  House,  be  it 
always  remembered,  did  not,  however,  evince  over- 
much sympathy  with  this  inrush  of  Petitions.  The 
Government  and  its  supporters  displayed  daily  their 
touchiness  and  irritation  at  the  frequent  recurrence  in 
the  Petitions  of  the  very  undeniable  statement  that 
Parliament  did  not  represent  the  people. 

The  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  (Vansittart)  said  : 
"  He  would  leave  the  House  to  judge  how  far  these 
Petitions  were  to  be  considered  as  the  genuine  and 
authentic  language  of  the  petitioners,  or  how  far  they 
were  the  dictation  of  certain  factious  demagogues,  who 
were  now  agitating  the  question  of  reform  throughout 
the  country."2 

Mr.  Lamb  (afterwards  Lord  Melbourne)  said  :  "  All 
those  plans  for  Reform  proceeded  from  mistaken  views 
of  the  subjects,  and  from  the  misrepresentations  of  the 
ancient  history  of  our  country.  In  all  the  resolutions 
which,  had  been  agreed  to  at  recent  meetings  there  was 
not  one  truth  fairly  told,  nor  any  portion  of  truth  intro- 
duced which  was  not  dashed  or  brewed  with  lies  and 
misrepresentations.  .  .  . 

"  The  Bill  (for  reform)  was  to  be  prepared  out  of  doors, 
and  they  were  to  sit  there  in  order  to  receive  and  pass  it. 
That  was  the  popular  doctrine  now  with  the  reformers."2 

1  Cobbett,   Political  Register,   1817,  2  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xxxv. 

p.  620.  p.  91. 

3  Ibid.  p.  88. 


394         THE  PLATFORM:    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

Both  Houses  of  Parliament  went  beyond  the  ex- 
pression of  their  dislike,  and  freely  exercised  their  right 
of  refusing  to  receive  Petitions ;  not  that  it,  indeed, 
mattered  whether  they  received  them  or  not,  for  no 
proceedings  were  taken  on  those  which  were  received 
praying  for  Parliamentary  reform,  at  this  time  at 
least. 

During  the  short  while  before  the  Select  Committees 
reported,  a  continual  wrangle  went  on  as  to  receiving 
the  Petitions  sent  up  for  presentation.  Certain  imped- 
ing forms  were  insisted  on.  The  Petitions  were  to  be 
read  first  by  the  member  moving  their  presentation  ; 
their  moderation  of  language  and  proper  deference 
were  to  be  vouched  for,  and  so  forth,  and  so  forth  ;  and 
all  this  amidst  the  most  frequent  protestations  that  the 
House  was  willing  to  receive  the  Petitions. 

Their  protestations  were  very  much  like  those  of 
some  of  the  petitioners  against  concession  to  the  Roman 
Catholics,  who  began  with  the  declaration  :  "  That  the 
petitioners  can  never  cease  to  be  the  firm  advocates  of 
religious  toleration." 

Brougham,  though  "  declaring  his  opposition  to  the 
principle  of  universal  suffrage,"  and  annual  Parliaments, 
nevertheless  urged  the  necessity  the  House  was  under 
of  accepting  Petitions.  He  said  :  "  Facility  of  petition- 
ing formed  a  natural  preventive  against  violence.  It 
held  out  to  the  people  an  encouragement  rather  to 
petition  the  House  in  all  cases  for  redress  than  to  resort 
to  illegal  or  riotous  measures.  On  the  score  of  policy, 
as  well  as  principle,  he  was  an  advocate  for  facilitating 
the  admission  of  all  Petitions  from  the  people."' 

And  a  few  days  later,  referring  to  the  questions  of 

1  See   the   Petition   from   the   Uni-  2  Hansard  (1817),  vol.  xxxv.  p.  84. 

versity    of   Oxford,    Hansard   (1813), 
vol.  xxiv.  p.  115. 


CHAP,  ix  THE  REJECTION  OF  PETITIONS  395 

uoiversal  suffrage  and  annual  Parliaments,  he  said :  "I 
do  not  think  these  delusions  will  spread  far.  The 
people  of  England  have  not,  in  my  opinion,  exhibited 
any  symptom  of  participating  in  them.  It  is  true  they 
have  presented  hundreds  of  Petitions  to  this  House.  I 
believe  above  a  million  of  people  have  declared  to  this 
House  some  opinion  or  other  on  the  question  of  reform. 
These  persons  have  been  collected  together  at  meetings, 
to  which  they  flocked  simply  because  they  felt  severe 
distress.  They  knew,  not  from  the  bad  teachers  and 
false  prophets  who  got  among  them,  but  from  their 
own  experience,  and  from  the  nature  of  their  sufferings, 
that  they,  in  a  great  measure,  originated  from  the  mal- 
administration of  public  affairs.  So  knowing  and  so 
feeling  they  naturally  vented  their  complaints  in  the 
Petitions  with  which  the  table  of  this  House  groans, 
into  which  Petitions  many  statements  and  propositions 
have  evidently  been  thrust,  to  which  the  actual  peti- 
tioners themselves  were  no  parties  whatever.  .  .  . 
Severe  distress  is  the  real  cause  of  this  agitation." 

It  was  also  urged  with  much  force  by  Lord  Lacelles  2 
that  "  A  wide  distinction  ought  to  be  made  between 
the  designs  and  disposition  of  the  petitioners  and  the 
reprehensible  terms  to  which  the  House  objected. 

"  The  people  were  in  great  distress,  without  employ- 
ment, or  the  prospect  of  returning  prosperity.  In  the 
extremity  of  their  trouble,  they  looked  about  for  an 
alleviation  of  their  sufferings,  or  a  remedy  for  their 
grievances ;  and  in  this  state  they  were  told  that  by 
subscribing  their  names  to  a  Petition  for  Parliamentary 
reform,  they  might  obtain  a  relief  from  their  burdens 
through  political  changes,  and  secure  themselves  against 
the  recurrence  of  similar  evils.  Men  in  distress  were 

1  Hansard  (1817),  vol.  xxxv.  p.  366.  -  Ibid.  p.  159. 


396         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"not  disposed  to  examine  very  scrupulously  into  the 
truth  or  propriety  of  any  measure  that  held  out  the 
hope  or  prospect  of  a  beneficial  change.  The  petitioners, 
though  they  thus  subscribed  violent  Petitions,  were  not 
violent  men,  and  ought  not  to  be  judged  according  to 
the  strict  import  of  expressions  which  many  of  them 
did  not  weigh  and  some  of  them  did  not  understand. 
The  intemperate  resolutions  to  which  they  came  at 
public  meetings  were  no  index  to  the  real  deliberate  and 
matured  opinions  of  those  who  voted  them  by  acclama- 
tion." 

Sir  F.  Burdett,  a  Radical  member,  and  therefore 
capable  of  speaking  with  authority  on  the  subject,  said  : 
"  Nothing  had  tended  more  to  keep  the  people  in  good 
humour  and  tranquillity  than  the  public  right  of  ad- 
dressing the  constituted  authorities  of  the  country." 

A  very  large  number  of  Petitions,  however,  were 
rejected  by  the  House,  either  on  account  of  some  infor- 
mality, or  of  some  expression  contained  in  them  which 
was  regarded  as  disrespectful  to  the  House. 

As  was  said  at  the  time  about  the  ministerial  treat- 
ment of  the  Petitions  :  "  Ministers  object  to  forms  ;  they 
object  to  spirit ;  they  object  to  motives ;  they  object  to 
everything  that  objects  to  themselves." 

The  majority  of  the  House  of  Commons  was  clearly 
in  a  very  bad  humoui.  The  whole  sting  of  the  meet- 
ings, of  the  Platform,  and  the  Petitions  was,  that 
Parliamentary  reform  should  be  asked  for,  for  that 
imperilled  so  much,  to  so  many  members  of  the  House. 
Reform  rankled  deep  in  the  minds  of  many  of  them. 
And  yet  it  appears  a  not  unreasonable  request  when  the 
state  of  Parliamentary  representation  was  such  that,  in 
Scotland,  "a  man  might  possess  ,£10,000  a  year  in 
property  or  in  land  without  being  entitled  to  a  vote 


CHAP,  ix        INCREASED  USE  OF  THE  PLATFORM  397 

for  a  member  of  Parliament." l  And  that,  in  a  borough 
in  England,  "  The  bellman  was  sent  through  the  town 
(Honiton)  to  order  the  voters  to  come  to  Mr.  Towns- 
hend's,  the  head  man  in  the  place,  and  a  banker,  to 
receive  ten  guineas  each  for  their  vote "  —  a  fact 
vouched  for  on  the  authority  of  the  member  who  was 
thus  returned  to  represent  the  constituency.2 

But  it  was  not  merely  in  the  open-air  meetings,  and 
the  framing  and  discussion  of  Petitions,  that  the  Plat- 
form was  at  work.  It  was  busy  in  other  less  conspicu- 
ous places  at  the  same  time.  Bamford,  in  his  interest- 
ing autobiography,  gives  us  a  graphic  picture  of  what  was 
going  on,  not  only  in  one,  but  in  many  places  ;  and  as 
such  meetings  as  he  describes  were  also  presently  to 
come  within  the  scope  of  Government  legislation,  his 
description  is  well  worth  quoting.  He  wrote  : 3  "  Several 
times  I  attended  (in  London)  meetings  of  Trades  Clubs, 
and  other  public  assemblages  of  the  working  men.  They 
would  generally  be  found  in  a  large  room,  an  elevated 
seat  being  placed  for  the  chairman.  On  first  opening 
the  door  the  place  seemed  dimmed  by  a  suffocating 
vapour  of  tobacco,  curling  from  the  cups  of  long  pipes, 
and  issuing  from  the  mouths  of  the  smokers  in  clouds 
of  abominable  odour,  like  nothing  in  the  world  more 
than  one  of  the  unclean  fogs  of  their  streets  (though  the 
latter  were  certainly  less  offensive  and  probably  less 
hurtful).  Every  man  would  have  his  half-pint  of  porter 
before  him ;  many  would  be  speaking  at  once ;  and  the 
hum  and  confusion  would  be  such  as  gave  an  idea  of 
there  being  more  talkers  than  thinkers,  more  speakers 
than  listeners.  Presently  '  order '  would  be  called,  and 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.   xxxv.       the  M.  P.  so  returned),   Hansard,   vol. 
p.  177.  xxxv.  p.  92. 

2  See  Lord  Cochrane's  Speech  (he  was          8  Bamford's  Passages  in  the  Life  of 

a  Radical,  vol.  i.  p.  23. 


398         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

"  comparative  silence  would  ensue — a  speaker,  stranger, 
or  citizen  would  be  announced,  with  much  courtesy  and 
compliment.  '  Hear,  hear,'  would  follow,  with  clapping 
of  hands,  and  knocking  of  knuckles  on  the  tables  till 
the  half-pints  danced ;  then  a  speech,  with  compliments 
to  some  brother  orator  or  popular  statesman ;  next  a 
resolution  in  favour  of  Parliamentary  reform,  and  a 
speech  to  second  it;  an  amendment  on  some  minor 
point  would  follow  •  a  seconding  of  that,  a  breach  of 
order  by  some  individual  of  warm  temperament ;  half  a 
dozen  would  rise  to  set  him  right,  a  dozen  to  put  them 
down ;  and  the  vociferation  and  gesticulation  would 
become  loud  and  confounding." 

From  all  these  debates,  and  petitionings,  and  meet- 
ings, open  air  and  otherwise,  certain  facts  stand  out 
with  vivid  clearness — facts  which  must  have  been  preg- 
nant with  deep  meaning  to  the  more  clear  -  sighted 
statesmen  of  the  time,  one  at  least  of  whom  has  placed 
on  record  his  recognition  of  them. 

The  Platform  had  never  yet  spread  itself  so  exten- 
sively throughout  the  country,  never  yet  was  it  so 
universally  adopted  by  the  people  as  the  mouthpiece  of 
their  grievances  and  of  their  hopes,  never  yet  had  it  so 
fully  revealed  the  tremendous  power  it  might  become 
in  the  government  of  the  country.  Ministers  decreed 
accordingly  that  it  was  to  be  struck  down. 

Place  presents  us  with  an  interesting  view  of  the 
policy  of  the  Ministers  at  this  period  :  "  Not  sufficiently 
adverting  to  the  increase  of  knowledge  which  had  taken 
place,  the  Ministers  resorted  to  the  old  Pitt  system  of 
alarms.  Attempts  were  made  to  frighten  the  nation. 
Disaffection,  Sedition,  Popery,  Treason,  Rebellion  were 
proclaimed  as  evils  which  had  proceeded  to  such  an 
extent  that  it  required  all  the  energy  of  the  Govern- 


CHAP,  ix  THE  LORDS'  SECRET  COMMITTEE  399 

ment,  aided  by  the  loyal  portion  of  the  people, 
effectually  to  put  down  for  ever  the  evil  designs  of  the 
disaffected ;  but,  notwithstanding  the  advantages  the 
distressed  state  of  the  working  people  gave  them,  and 
the  nefarious  way  in  which  they  took  advantage  of  it, 
they  failed  in  their  attempt  to  excite  such  an  alarm  as 
would  have  left  them  at  liberty  to  proceed  as  they 
wished.  Circumstances  had  materially  changed ;  the 
trick  which  had  been  played  too  often  with  success,  and 
the  consequent  result  in  the  enormous  amount  of  the 
debt  and  taxes,  operated  as  a  warning  even  to  the 
extravagantly  loyal  part  of  the  people."1 

Whether  they  excited  sufficient  alarm  or  not,  they 
certainly  succeeded  in  having  their  own  way  pretty  well. 

The  Secret  Committees  reported  on  the  18th  and 
19th  of  February.  Their  reports  cannot  but  be  re- 
garded, by  the  light  shed  upon  them  by  subsequent 
evidence  and  events,  as  humiliating  to  those  concerned 
in  them.  That  of  the  House  of  Lords 2  was  the  more 
rational  of  the  two.  Even  it,  however,  depicted  the 
country  as  on  the  verge  of  revolution. 

The  meeting  at  Spa  Fields  on  the  15th  of  November 
1816,  which  has  been  already  described,  was  the  start- 
ing-point of  their  panic.  The  Committee  reported  that 
they  had  found  such  evidence  as  left  no  doubt  in  their 
mind  "  that  a  traitorous  conspiracy  had  been  formed  in 
the  metropolis  for  the  purpose  of  overthrowing,  by 
means  of  a  general  insurrection,  the  established  Govern- 
ment, laws,  and  Constitution  of  this  kingdom,  and  of 
effecting  a  general  plunder  and  division  of  property ; 
.  .  .  and  that  such  designs  had  not  been  confined  to 
the  capital,  but  extended  widely  in  many  other  parts  of 
Great  Britain,  particularly  in  some  of  the  most  populous 

1  Place,  MSS.,  27,809,  p.  39.  2  See  Hansard,  1817,  vol.  xxxv.  p.  411. 


400         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"  and  manufacturing  districts."  The  House  of  Commons 
Committee,1  with  melodramatic  bombast,  declared  that 
the  design  was,  by  a  sudden  rising  in  the  dead  of  night, 
to  surprise  and  overpower  the  soldiers  in  their  different 
barracks,  which  were  to  be  set  on  fire ;  at  the  same 
time  to  possess  themselves  of  the  artillery,  to  seize 
or  destroy  the  bridges,  and  to  take  possession  of  the 
Tower  and  the  Bank.  In  furtherance  of  this  design, 
a  "machine  was  projected  for  clearing  the  streets  of 
cavalry,"  in  conclusive  proof  whereof  was  "a  drawing 
of  this  machine,  fullv  authenticated,"  which  had  been 

*/ 

found. 

It  would  be  unnecessary  to  refer  to  these  puerilities, 
for  they  can  scarcely  be  regarded  as  the  calm  conclu- 
sions of  intelligent  men,  were  it  not  for  the  legislation 
which  was  based  on  them,  and  which  vitally  concerned 
the  existence  of  the  Platform. 

The  Lords'  Committee  attributed  all  these  treason- 
able plans  and  movements  to  certain  Societies  or  Clubs  : 
"  Many  of  these  Societies  pass  under  the  denomination 
of  '  Hampden  Clubs.'  Under  this  title  Societies  of  very 
various  descriptions  appear  to  have  been  formed,  all 
professing  their  object  to  be  Parliamentary  reform.  .  .  . 
But  the  Committee  find  that,  particularly  among  the 
manufacturing  and  labouring  classes,  Societies  of  this 
denomination  have  been  most  widelv  extended,  and 

«/ 

appear  to  have  become  some  of  the  chief  instruments  of 
disseminating  doctrines,  and  of  preparing  for  the  execu- 
tion of  plans,  the  most  dangerous  to  the  public  security 
and  peace.2 

"  Others  of  these  Societies  are  called  '  Union  Clubs.' 
professing  the  same  object  of  Parliamentary  reform,  but 

1  See  Hansard,  1817,  vol.   xxxv.   p.  2  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xxxv. 

438.  p.  415. 


CHAP,  ix  THE  LORDS  SECRET  COMMITTEE  401 

under  these  words,  understanding  universal  suffrage  and 
annual  Parliaments — projects  which  evidently  involve 
not  any  qualified  or  partial  change,  but  a  total  subver- 
sion of  the  British  Constitution.1 

"  It  appears  that  there  is  a  London  Union  Society, 
and  branch  Unions  corresponding  with  it,  and  affiliated 
to  it.  Others  of  these  Societies  have  adopted  the 
name  of  '  Spencean  Philanthropists ' ;  and  it  was  by 
members  of  a  club  of  this  description  that  the  plans  of 
the  conspirators  in  London  were  discussed  and  prepared 
for  execution.  The  principles  of  these  last  associations 
seem  to  be  spreading  rapidly  among  other  Societies 
which  have  been  formed,  and  are  daily  forming,  under 
that  and  other  denominations  in  the  country.  .  .  . 

"  It  appears  to  be  an  essential  part  of  the  system  to 
take  advantage  of  the  opportunities  afforded  by  public 
meetings,  convoked  either  by  the  leaders  of  these 
Societies,  or  by  others,  in  the  metropolis,  and  in  populous 
places  and  districts,  to  address  the  multitude  in  terms 
of  unprecedented  licence  and  violence,  amounting  even  in 
some  instances  to  an  open  declaration  that,  in  case  of 
non-compliance  with  their  Petitions,  the  Sovereign  will 
have  forfeited  his  claims  to  their  allegiance.  These  pro- 
ceedings are  subsequently  printed  and  circulated,  and 
thus  become  a  fresh  vehicle  for  sedition  and  treason.2 

"  By  the  frequency  of  these  meetings  the  minds  of 
his  Majesty's  well-disposed  and  peaceable  subjects  are 
held  in  a  state  of  perpetual  agitation  and  alarm." 

The  Lords  Committee  ended  by  saying,  that  "  Such 
a  state  of  things  cannot  be  suffered  to  continue  without 
hazarding  the  most  imminent  and  dreadful  evils,"  and 
by  expressing  their  "  decided  opinion  "  that  further  pro- 
visions were  necessary  "  for  the  preservation  of  the 

1  Lords  Committee,  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xxxv.  p.  416.      2  Ibid.  p.  418. 


402        THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

"  public  peace,  and  for  the  protection  of  interests  in 
which  the  happiness  of  every  class  of  the  community 
is  deeply  and  equally  involved." 

The  House  of  Commons  Committee  declared  that  the 
utmost  vigilance  of  the  Government  under  the  existing 
state  of  the  laws  had  been  found  inadequate  to  prevent 
the  evils  they  had  described. 

It  is  difficult  adequately  to  characterise  these  produc- 
tions. One  member,  Mr.  Bennett,  openly  showed  his 
contempt  for  the  report  of  the  House  of  Commons  Com- 
mittee. Speaking  in  the  House,  he  said  :  "  The  whole 
people  were  in  this  Report  libelled  and  arraigned— 
they  were  traduced  in  their  characters,  and  were  to 
surrender  their  freedom  by  such  trash  as  this — trash 
which  I  only  think  fit  for  trampling  under  my  feet." 
(Here  he  threw  the  Report  on  the  floor  of  the  House  and 
trampled  on  it.) 

If  it  were  not  that  the  Government  had  a  clear  and 
definite  object  in  putting  the  most  alarming  aspect  on 
every  incident  which  had  occurred,  one  would  only  think 
the  members  of  the  Committees  had  been  very  easily 
deceived,  and  suppose  that  they  had  given  credence  to 
whatever  fanciful  imaginings  some  of  the  Government 
spies  of  the  period  palmed  off  on  them  as  true.  But 
when  the  Government  had  a  distinct  object  in  depicting 
the  country  on  the  verge  of  insurrection  and  revolution, 
when  their  sole  hope  of  retaining  their  own  power  and 
that  of  their  class  depended  upon  their  obtaining  extra 
laws  to  enable  them  to  check  the  increasing  power  of 
the  people  and  the  growing  assertion  of  it  from  and  by 
the  Platform,  then  one  is  forced  to  put  a  less  innocent 
interpretation  on  their  action,  and  to  conclude  that  the 
statements  in  the  Reports  were  deliberate  and  designed 
exaggeration — for  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  great 


CHAP,  ix  THE   FOUR  ACTS  403 

majority  of  both  Committees  consisted  of  the  members 
of  the  Government  itself  or  their  hangers-on.  The  very 
language  of  the  Reports  justifies  this  view  of  the  matter, 
and  if  absolute  proof  is  wanted,  it  is,  I  think,  afforded 
in  the  unnecessarily  far-reaching  and  vindictive  character 
of  the  legislation  which  was  based  on  these  Reports,  and 
for  which  they  were  made  the  justification. 

Supported  by  the  recommendations  of  the  Com- 
mittees, the  Government  determined  to  strike  down  the 
Platform — that  was  the  source  of  most  of  their  trouble, 
the  cause  of  most  of  their  anger. 

In  1795  the  Platform  had  been  met  by  two  Acts. 
The  emergency  of  1817  required  four  Acts.  The  Prime 
Minister  declaring  that  "  In  1794  the  danger  of  the 
country  was  great ;  but  the  danger  of  the  present 
moment  exhibited  features  of  a  more  desperate  and 
malignant  character."1 

The  Act  which  was  passed  in  1795  to  protect  the 
King  from  attack  was  extended  to  the  Prince  Regent.2 
An  Act  against  the  seduction  of  soldiers  from  their 
allegiance  was  also  deemed  necessary,3  "as  it  appeared 
in  this,  as  well  as  in  former  treasons,  that  much  hope 
was  built  on  the  hope  of  debauching  and  seducing  the 
soldiery  and  sea  forces ; "  but  their  real  measures  of 

1  Hansard,  vol.  xxxv.  p.  573.  two  Acts  of  the  thirty  -  seventh  year 

2  57  Geo.   III.  cap.  6,   17th  March  of  his  present  Majesty— the  one  in  the 
1817.      "An  Act  to  make  perpetual  Parliament  of  Great  Britain,  and  the 
certain  parts  of  an  Act  of  the  thirty-  other  in  the  Parliament  of  Ireland — for 
sixth  year  (1795)  of  his  present  Majesty,  the  better  prevention  and  punishment 
for  the  safety  and  preservation  of  his  of  attempts  to  seduce  persons  serving 
Majesty's     person     and    Government  in  his  Majesty's  forces  by  sea  or  land 
against  treasonable  and  seditious  prac-  from  their  duty  and  allegiance  to  his 
tices  and  attempts,  and  for  the  safety  Majesty  or  to  incite  them  to  mutiny  or 
and  preservation  of  the  person  of  his  disobedience." 

Royal  Highness,   the  Prince   Regent,  This  is  even  a  more  curious  instance 

against     treasonable     practices     and  of  legislation    by   reviving   a   statute 

attempts."  than  that  already  referred  to,  for  in 

3  57  Geo.  III.  cap.  7,17th  Marchl817.  this  case  one  of  the  Acts  revived  was 
"  An  Act  to  revive  and  make  perpetual  an  Act  of  the  Irish  Parliament 


404         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

repression,  the  real  laws  which  struck  down  the  Platform, 
were,  first,  the  Act l  suspending  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act, 
and  secondly,  an  Act2  practically  re-enacting  the  Act  of 
1795  against  Seditious  Meetings,  Clubs,  and  Societies. 

The  Bill  for  the  suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus 
Act  was  introduced  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  quickly 
passed  there.  In  the  House  of  Commons  all  resistance 
to  it  was  ineffectual,  the  Ministry  having  an  enormous 
and  obedient  majority  there  as  well  as  in  the  Lords. 
The  composition  of  part  of  that  majority  is  well 
illustrated  by  the  speech  of  a  certain  Mr.  Hudson 
Gurney,  one  of  those  "  virtual  representatives "  who 
shed  such  lustre  on  the  Constitution,  that  in  later  years 
a  revolution  was  risked  to  save  them.  He  was  member 
for  the  decayed  borough  of  Newton  in  the  Isle  of  Wight, 
which,  though  it  consisted  of  only  a  few  cottages,  was 
nevertheless  a  corporation,  and  had  a  titular  Mayor. 
There  were  thirty-three  electors,  but  only  one  of  them 
resided  in  the  place. 

Speaking  on  the  first  reading  of  the  Bill  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  this  illustrious  member,  whose 
name  should  be  gibbeted  to  posterity,  thus  expressed 
his  views  :  "  His  counsel  to  the  Crown  would  be  to  revert 
to  the  vigorous  measures  of  the  days  of  Elizabeth  when 
counselled  by  Cecil  and  Walsingham  —  to  check  the 
officiousness  of  volunteer  advisers — by  driving  a  cleaver 
through  their  wrists  with  a  mallet  in  Palace  Yard — and 
to  keep  peace  in  the  city  by  hanging  boys  for  throwing 
stones  at  the  parish  constables."5 

The  Bill  passed,  and  the  suspension  of  the 
Habeas  Corpus  came  into  immediate  operation.  The 
preamble  of  the  Act  stated  that  a  traitorous  con- 

1  57Geo.  III.  cap.  3,  4th  March  1817.  3  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xxxv. 

2  57  Geo.  III.  cap.  19,  31st  March       p.  649. 

1817. 


CHAP,  ix  THE  FOUR  ACTS  405 

spiracy  had  been  formed  for  the  purpose  of  overthrowing 
by  means  of  a  general  insurrection  the  established 
government,  laws,  and  constitution  of  this  kingdom, 
and  that  designs  and  practices  of  a  treasonable  and 
highly  dangerous  nature  were  carrying  on  in  the 
metropolis,  and  in  many  other  parts  of  Great  Britain ; 
and  power  was  given  to  the  Ministers  to  arrest  practi- 
cally any  one  they  wished.  The  suspension  was  to 
remain  in  force  until  the  1st  July  1817. 

Tremendous  as  was  the  power  thus  obtained  by  the 
Ministers,  it  was  far  from  satisfying  them,  and  a  Bill 
for  the  more  effectually  preventing  Seditious  Meetings 
and  Assemblies  was  introduced  into  the  House  of 
Commons  by  Lord  Castlereagh.  "In  1795,"  he  said, 
"  the  Legislature,  by  the  Seditious  Meetings  Act,  antici- 
pated and  prevented  evils  by  stopping  them.  Now, 
however,  the  acts  of  violence  which  had  only  been 
contemplated  then,  had  in  the  present  case  been  put 
into  execution.1 

"  A  mob  was  assembled,  their  basest  passions  were 
appealed  to,  their  cupidity  inflamed,  their  most  lawless 
appetites  promised  to  be  gratified,  the  means  too  were 
pointed  out,  and  these  agitators  watched  in  the  counten- 
ances of  the  deluded  rabble  the  effect  of  their  harangues, 
till  they  found  them  wrought  up  to  the  perpetration  of 
the  most  horrid  excesses  and  crimes.  All  this  had 
actually  been  done."  .  .  . 

Another  member  of  the  Government,  the  Solicitor- 
General,  displayed  the  panic  into  which  the  Platform 
and  public  meetings  had  thrown  the  Government,  and 
their  obedient  followers  in  Parliament.  He  said : 
"  Of  the  various  means  employed  by  the  fomenters 
of  discontent,  one  of  the  most  efficacious  was,  to  call 

1  Hansard,  1817,  vol.  xxxv.  p.  599. 


4o6         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  it 

"together  a  number  of  persons,  to  inflame  them  by 
harangues,  to  persuade  them  that  the  evils  arising  from 
the  circumstances  of  the  times  would  be  remedied  by 
their  application  to  Parliament,  and  to  persuade  them 
that  they  had  a  right  to  force  Parliament  to  comply 
with  their  demands.  These  meetings,  which  might  be 
turned  to  every  mischievous  purpose,  the  Bill  was 
intended  to  control." l 

The  measure,  proposed  and  enacted,2  was  in  the 
greater  portion  of  it  identical  in  terms  with  that  of  1795. 
It  enacted  that  "  No  meeting  of  any  description  of  per- 
sons, exceeding  the  number  of  fifty  (except  meetings  duly 
convened  by  the  Sheriff,  etc.),  shall  be  holden  for  the 
purpose  or  on  the  pretext  of  considering  of  or  preparing 
any  petition,  complaint,  remonstrance,  or  other  address 
to  the  King  or  Parliament  for  alteration  of  matters 
established  in  the  Church  or  State,  or  for  the  purpose 
or  on  the  pretext  of  deliberating  upon  any  grievance  in 
Church  or  State  unless  notice  of  the  intention  to  hold 
such  meeting,  and  of  the  time  and  place,  when  and 
where  the  same  shall  be  proposed  to  be  holden,  and  of 
the  purpose  for  which  the  same  shall  be  proposed  to  be 
holden,"  shall  be  given  in  the  name  of  seven  house- 
holders at  the  least  in  some  public  newspaper  five  days 
before  such  meeting,  and  sent  to  the  Clerk  of  the  Peace, 
who  was  directed  to  send  a  copy  to  three  local  Justices 
at  the  least. 

The  magistrates  were  "  authorised  and  empowered  " 
to  resort  to  the  meeting,  and  in  this  Act  again  there 
was  a  provision  for  safeguarding  them  to  the  meeting. 
All  meetings  of  over  fifty  persons,  regarding  which 
the  necessary  notice  had  not  been  given,  were  declared 
to  be  "  unlawful  assemblies."  No  meeting  was  to  be 

1  Hansard,  vol.  xxxv.  p.  850.        2  57  Geo.  III.  cap.  19,  31st  March  1817. 


CHAP,  ix  THE  SEDITIOUS  MEETINGS  ACT  407 

adjourned,  and  any  adjourned  meeting  was  declared  to 
be  an  "  unlawful  assembly." 

In  either  of  these  cases  the  meeting  might  be  dis- 
persed by  order  of  a  magistrate,  and  if  more  than  twelve 
persons  remained  after  the  lapse  of  an  hour,  then  "  such 
continuing  together  shall  be  adjudged  felony  without 
benefit  of  clergy,  and  the  offenders  shall  suffer  death, 
as  in  cases  of  felony,  without  benefit  of  clergy." 

Then,  as  regarded  the  meetings  which  were  held  in 
pursuance  of  the  notice,  the  magistrates  were  given 
identically  the  same  powers  for  stopping  the  speaker  and 
dispersing  the  meeting  as  they  had  been  in  1795,  and  if 
there  were  any  obstruction  it  was  lawful  for  the  magis- 
trate by  proclamation  to  order  the  meeting  to  disperse, 
and  any  persons  to  the  number  of  twelve  or  more 
remaining  were  liable  to  arrest,  and  on  conviction  to  the 
penalty  of  death,  as  in  the  case  of  felony,  without  benefit 
of  clergy. 

The  proclamation  to  be  used  was  :  "  Our  Sovereign 
Lord  the  King  chargeth  and  commandeth  all  persons 
here  assembled  immediately  to  disperse  themselves,  and 
peaceably  to  depart  to  their  habitations  or  to  their 
lawful  business  upon  pain  of  death.  God  save  the 
King ! "  And  if  any  one  was  killed  or  maimed  or 
wounded  in  the  dispersal  of  the  meeting  the  magistrate 
was  indemnified.  Any  obstruction  to  the  orders  or 
proceedings  of  the  magistrates  rendered  the  offender 
liable  to  the  penalty  of  death  without  benefit  of  clergy. 

The  Act  then  proceeded  to  deal  with  lecture  rooms, 
etc.  (sect.  14):  "Whereas  divers  places  have  of  late 
been  used  for  delivering  lectures  or  discourses  and 
holding  debates,  which  lectures,  discourses,  or  debates, 
have  in  many  instances  been  of  a  seditious  and  immoral 
nature,"  it  was  enacted  that  all  such  places,  a  field 


408         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  11 

included,  so  as  to  prevent  open-air  lectures  or  debates, 
at  or  in  which  any  lecture  or  discourse  shall  be  publicly 
delivered,  or  any  public  debate  shall  be  had,  on  any 
subject  whatever,  for  the  purpose  of  raising  money,  or 
to  which  admission  was  charged,  "  shall,  unless  pre- 
viously licensed,  be  deemed  to  be  '  disorderly  places.' ' 
Any  one  who  opened  a  place  for  such  a  purpose  was 
liable  to  a  penalty  of  £100;  every  one  who  acted  as 
president  or  chairman,  and  any  one  paying  money  to 
attend  them,  were  liable  on  conviction  to  a  penalty  of 
£20.  Magistrates  were  at  liberty  to  go  into  such  houses 
or  places,  licensed  or  unlicensed,  whenever  they  wished. 

These  portions  of  the  Act  were  to  continue  in  force 
till  the  24th  July  1818. 

This,  however,  was  far  from  being  all. 

The  Act  went  on  :  "  And  whereas  divers  Societies  or 
Clubs  have  been  instituted  in  the  metropolis,  and  in 
various  parts  of  this  kingdom,  of  a  dangerous  nature  and 
tendency,  inconsistent  with  the  public  tranquillity  and 
the  existence  of  the  established  Government,  Laws,  and 
Constitution  of  the  kingdom,  and  the  members  of  many 
of  such  Societies  or  Clubs  have  taken  unlawful  oaths, 
etc.,  or  assented  to  illegal  tests,  and  many  of  the  said 
Societies  or  Clubs  elect,  appoint,  or  employ  Committees, 
delegates,  representatives,  or  missionaries  of  such 
Societies  or  Clubs  to  meet,  confer,  or  correspond  with 
other  Societies  or  Clubs,  or  with  delegates,  representa- 
tives, or  missionaries  of  such  other  Societies,  and  to 
induce  and  persuade  other  persons  to  become  members 
thereof,  and  by  such  means  maintain  an  influence  over 
large  bodies  of  men,  and  delude  many  ignorant  and 
unwary  persons  into  the  commission  of  acts  highly 
criminal  .  .  .  and  whereas  it  is  expedient  and  necessary 
that  all  such  Societies  and  Clubs,  as  aforesaid,  should  be 


CHAP,  ix  THE  SEDITIOUS  MEETINGS  ACT  409 

utterly  suppressed  and  prohibited  as  unlawful  combina- 
tions and  confederacies,  highly  dangerous  to  the  peace 
and  tranquillity  of  this  kingdom,  and  to  the  constitution 
of  the  Government  thereof  as  by  law  established/' 
certain  provisions  were  enacted  to  effect  this  object j 
any  person  breaking  them  was  liable  on  conviction 
to  a  penalty  of  a  fine  of  £20  or  three  months'  imprison- 
ment if  convicted  before  a  magistrate,  or  seven  years' 
transportation  if  convicted  on  indictment. 

The  proposal  thus  made  by  Lord  Liverpool's  Govern- 
ment is  the  most  extraordinary  testimony  to  the 
astounding  spirit  of  English  Toryism,  and  to  their  utter 
ignorance  of  the  changes  which  twenty  years'  had 
effected  in  the  country.  In  1795,  when  a  revolutionary 
panic  existed,  such  a  measure  had  been  passed  ;  in  1 8 1 7, 
though  the  ground  was  trembling  under  the  feet  of 
feudalism  and  feudalistic  ideas,  such  a  measure  must  be 
re-enacted.  What  relentless  bloodthirsty  vindictiveness 
must  have  filled  the  bosoms  of  this  Tory  Government 
when  nothing  less  than  the  punishment  of  death  without 
benefit  of  clergy  was  deemed  sufficient  for  persons 
remaining  at  a  meeting  which  any  ignorant  or  bigotted 
magistrate  had  ordered  to  disperse !  What  absolute 
terror  must  the  Government  and  its  dependents  have 
been  in  to  have  dared  to  make  so  monstrous,  so  in- 
humanly cruel  a  proposition  !  It  would  be  hard  to 
believe  that  such  a  proposal  was  made  so  lately  as  the 
second  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century,  were  it  not 
that  the  Seditious  Meetings  Act  of  1817  is  there  in  the 
Statute  Book,  proving  not  alone  that  the  proposal  was 
made  but  that  it  was  actually  enacted. 

It  was  but  natural  that  such  a  proposal  should  have 
been  vehemently  opposed  by  the  Liberal  portion  of 
Parliament. 


410        THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

The  first  point  seized  on  was  the  dissimilarity  of 
circumstances  between  1795  and  1817.  In  1795  Eng- 
land was  at  war  with  France,  was  in  expectation  of 
being  invaded,  revolutionary  principles  existed  to  an 
extent  sufficient  to  alarm  large  sections  of  the  people  ; 
visionary  theories  of  Government  prevailed  in  the  minds 
of  some  of  the  multitude  ;  a  Society  was  in  actual  corre- 
spondence with,  and  was  said  to  be  receiving  money  from 
the  enemy  ;  and,  above  all,  the  determination  of  some  of 
the  discontented  was  to  seek  relief  by  other  means  than 
petitioning  Parliament.  In  1817,  so  far  from  any  one 
thinking  of  foreign  help,  the  people  had  shown  them- 
selves only  anxious  to  petition  Parliament  for  relief  and 
redress  ;  never  had  the  tables  of  the  two  Houses  been  so 
loaded  with  Petitions  from  all  parts  of  the  kingdom, 
from  every  description  of  its  inhabitants,  from  numbers 
infinitely  exceeding  those  that  ever  before  approached 
Parliament  in  the  language  of  complaint.  Meetings  had 
been  held  in  every  part  of  the  country,  and  nowhere 
had  there  been  any  disturbance  at  a  meeting,  or  even 
resulting  from  it,  except  in  the  solitary  instance  of  the 
metropolis. 

Distress  was  deep  and  widespread,  without  parallel 
in  any  former  period  of  the  country's  history,  and  no 
other  country  could  exhibit  a  population  suffering  under 
such  accumulated  distresses,  where  so  much  forbearance 
was  shown,  and  such  good  temper  was  manifested.  And 
the  taunt  was  flung  at  the  Government,  that  the  chief 
cause  of  the  Bill  for  suppressing  meetings  was  the 
number  of  Petitions  which  the  people  were  sending  to 
the  House  asking  for  reform,  and  that  they  complained 
so  much,  that  the  Government  were  resolved  to  stifle 
their  voice. 

In  vain  was  it  urged  that  meetings  of  the  people 


CHAP,  ix  1795  AND  1817  4" 

were  one  of  the  important  parts  of  the  Constitution,  and 
that  it  was  impossible  to  restrain  the  expression  of  public 
opinion  without  diminishing  that  attachment  to  the 
Constitution  which  was  one  of  the  noblest  characteristics 
of  the  people.  Canning  attempted  to  justify  the  Bill, 
with  the  specious  reasoning  that  it  was  necessary  to 
fence  round  the  invaluable  right  of  petitioning,  and  to 
secure  the  people  in  its  full  enjoyment — a  rather  curious 
argument  when  nearly  500  Petitions  for  reform,  signed 
by  nearly  1,000,000  of  persons,  were  rejected  by  the 
House  of  Commons  because  they  were  printed,  or  in 
some  other  way  technically  informal.1  He  also  declared 
"  that  public  meetings  required  extraordinary  control, 
because  there  was  an  unusual  degree  of  inflammability 
in  the  public  mind,  and  that  there  were  incendiaries 
abroad  who  would  avail  themselves  of  it  to  kindle  the 
fires  of  rebellion  in  every  corner  of  the  kingdom  ;  " 2  and 
he  said  :  "  It  is  not  against  legitimate  petitions  that  we 
are  providing ;  it  is  not  against  the  peaceable  promulga- 
tion of  opinions,  however  absurd ;  but  we  call  on  the 
country  to  array  itself  against  that  physical  force  by 
which  these  mischievous  delusions  are  to  be  propagated, 
and  maintained.  The  language  is  the  language  of  sup- 
plication, but  the  attitude  is  the  attitude  of  menace." 

This  was  the  declared  object  of  the  Government, 
and  to  attain  it  they  proposed  the  most  sweeping- 
repressive  measures,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  Secret 
Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons,  extreme  as  was 
its  composition,  felt  constrained  to  admit  that  "  Few  if 
any  of  the  higher  orders,  or  even  of  the  middle  class  of 

1  "On   the   12th    March   1817   the  signatures  was  said  to  be  a  million  and 

number  of  Petitions  for  Parliamentary  a  half."— Place,  MSS.,  27,809,  p.  91. 
reform  which  had  been  presented  and          -  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xxxv. 

were  lying  on  the  floor  of  the  House  of  p.  1118. 
Commons  was  514.      The  number  of 


412         THE  PLATFORM:    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"  society,  and  scarcely  any  of  the  agricultural  popula- 
tion have  lent  themselves  to  the  more  violent  of  these 
projects."  l 

Out  of  the  hundreds  of  public  meetings  that  had 
been  held,  one  solitary  one  had  resulted  in,  or  been  used 
as  a  cloak  for  riot.  This,  however,  for  the  Government 
was  sufficient,  and  they  seized  on  it  as  the  excuse  and 
justification  for  what  they  really  desired — a  general 
suppression  of  freedom  of  speech.  Further  support  to 
their  view  was  given  by  the  fact  that  designing  men, 
more  eager  for  self-advertisement  than  for  the  real 
welfare  of  the  people,  came  to  the  front,  availing  them- 
selves of  the  opportunities  afforded  for  gaining  notoriety 
to  stir  up  violent  feelings. 

Bamford's  autobiography  affords  us  a  glimpse  behind 
the  scenes,  explaining  how  these  men  came  to  the  front. 
"It  was  about  this  time  (March  1817)  that  the  first 
out-of-door  meeting  was  held  at  Rochdale.2  The  day 
was  cold  and  very  wet ;  the  hustings  were  fixed  on 
the  bare  moor  of  Cronkeyshaw.  None  of  the  speakers 
save  myself  kept  their  appointment.  Nothing  in  the 
form  of  resolution  or  petition  had  been  prepared ;  and  1 
had  to  select  and  arrange  these  from  an  old  Statesman 
newspaper  which  I  found  at  the  rendezvous — '  The  Rose,' 
in  Yorkshire  Street.  The  town  wore  an  appearance  of 
alarm,  and  a  company  or  two  of  soldiers  were  under 
arms  in  the  main  street.  The  meeting  was  however 
well  attended,  and  the  hearts  of  the  people  seemed  to 
warm  in  proportion  to  the  merciless  cold  of  the  wind 
and  rain,  which  latter  teemed  upon  us  during  the  whole 
of  the  proceedings.  .  .  . 

"  On  this  occasion  I  received  pay  for  my  attendance. 
On  our  return  to  '  The  Rose/  besides  refreshments,  the 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xxxv.  p.  447.  2  Bamford,  vol.  i.  p.  35. 


CHAP,  ix        THE  SUPPRESSION  OF  PETITIONING  413 

Committee  presented  me  with  four  shillings,  and  I 
accepted  the  money  because  I  thought  I  was  entitled  to 
it,  having  lost  work  to  that  value  at  home.  But  I 
never,  except  on  this  occasion,  took  money,  or  any 
other  remuneration,  for  attending  reform  meetings.  I 
considered  it  a  mean  thing,  though  the  practice  was 
coming  much  into  use,  and  several  of  my  friends  without 
any  scruple  continued  to  do  so  until  '  their  occupation ' 
was  gone.  It  was  a  bad  practice,  however,  and  gave 
rise  to  a  set  of  orators  who  made  a  trade  of  speechifying, 
and  the  race  has  not  become  extinct.  These  persons 
began  to  seek  engagements  of  the  kind ;  some  would 
even  thrust  themselves  on  public  meetings,  and  then 
present  themselves  to  the  Committees  for  remuneration, 
and  generally  received  it.  He  who  produced  the 
greatest  excitement,  the  loudest  cheering,  and  the  most 
violent  clappings,  was  the  best  orator,  and  was  sure  to 
be  engaged,  and  well  paid ;  and  in  order  to  produce 
those  manifestations,  the  wildest  and  most  extravagant 
rhodomontade  would  too  often  suffice.  Such  speakers 
quickly  got  a  name ;  the  calls  on  them  were  frequent ; 
and  they  left  their  work  or  their  business  for  a  more 
profitable  and  flattering  employment ;  tramping  from 
place  to  place,  hawking  their  new  fangles,  and  guzzling, 
fattening,  and  replenishing  themselves,  at  the  expense 
of  the  simple  and  credulous  multitudes. 

"Steadiness  of  conduct  and  consistency  of  principle 
were  soon  placed,  as  it  were,  at  a  distance  from  us ;  our 
unity  of  action  was  relaxed ;  new  speakers  sprung  like 
mushrooms  about  our  feet ;  plans  were  broached  quite 
different  from  any  that  had  been  recognised  by  the 
Hampden  Clubs  ;  and  the  people,  at  a  loss  to  distinguish 
friends  from  enemies,  were  soon  prepared  for  the  opera- 
tions of  informers,  who,  in  the  natural  career  of  their 


414         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  11 

"  business,  became  also  promoters  of  secret  plots,  and 
criminal  measures  of  various  descriptions." 

It  might  be  thought  that  the  ordinary  law,  stringent 
enough  in  those  times,  and  easily  enough  set  in  motion, 
could  have  been  enforced  against  such  men  and  such 
proceedings.  The  Government  thought  differently,  and 
so  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  was  to  be  suspended,  and 
not  alone  public  meetings,  but  verbal  public  discussion 
to  be  suppressed.  The  blow  nominally  directed  against 
"  physical  force "  was  aimed  intentionally  and  deliber- 
ately at  the  Platform,  at  all  forms  of  public  meeting 
and  public  speech,  except  what  was  palatable  to  the 
Government  and  its  dependents.  The  two  Bills  were 
hurried  so  rapidly  through  both  Houses  that  there 
was  not  much  time  for  agitation  out  of  doors  against 
them.  Westminster  held  a  meeting  and  petitioned 
against  them.1 

"  On  every  former  occasion  when  the  Habeas  Corpus 
Act  was  suspended,"  said  the  petitioners,  "  the  country 
was  involved  in  war ;  in  some  instances  to  defend  the 
legal  succession  to  the  Crown,  and  in  others,  as  was 
then  alleged,  to  prevent  the  overthrow  of  the  Constitu- 
tion through  the  assistance  of  foreign  enemies  ;  that  at 
present  none  of  these  reasons  exist,  nor  are  the  petitioners 
aware  of  any  acts  of  atrocity  having  been  committed 
which  the  law,  as  it  at  present  stands,  cannot  reach." 

London  city  likewise  met  and  petitioned ;  also 
Nottingham  and  Bath ;  but  by  the  4th  of  March  the 
Habeas  Corpus  Suspension  Act  had  passed,  and  then  it 
became  perilous  to  hold  meetings  or  speak  on  any  sub- 
ject distasteful  to  the  Government. 

One  meeting  must,  however,  be  specially  referred  to 
here,  known  in  history  as  the  Blanket  Meeting. 

1  Hansard,  Parliamentary  Debates,  1817,  vol.  xxxv.  p.  643. 


CHAP,  ix  POPULAR  ORATORS  415 

The  Secret  Committee  of  the  House  of  Lords  give 
full  details  of  the  preliminaries  to  it.  They  said  :  "At 
a  meeting  which  was  convened  at  Manchester  on  the 
3d  March  (1817),  for  the  purpose  of  petitioning  against 
the  Habeas  Corpus  Suspension  Act,  and  where  several 
thousand  persons  appear  to  have  been  assembled,  it  was 
proposed  and  agreed  to  that  another  meeting  should  be 
held  on  the  10th,  with  the  professed  intention  that  ten 
out  of  every  twenty  persons  who  should  attend  it 
should  proceed  to  London  with  a  Petition  to  his  Royal 
Highness  the  Prince  Regent.  The  interval  was  em- 
ployed in  almost  daily  meetings  of  the  disaffected, 
which  were  numerously  attended.  The  real  intentions 
of  the  leaders  were  there  developed  to  their  followers  in 
speeches  of  the  most  undisguised  violence.  One  of 
them  avowed  that  he  was  a  republican  and  a  leveller, 
and  would  never  give  up  the  cause  till  a  republican 
form  of  government  was  established.  The  people  were 
told  by  others  that  if  their  Petition  was  rejected  they 
must  force  it ;  that  the  large  towns  in  Yorkshire  were 
adopting  the  same  plan,  and  would  meet  them  on  the 
road ;  .  .  .  that  there  was  reason  to  believe  that  the 
Scotch  were  then  on  their  march  ;  .  .  .  that  it  would  be 
impossible  for  the  army  or  anything  to  resist  them. 
These  speakers  appear  in  a  few  instances  to  have  been 
checked  by  some  of  their  associates,  but  their  senti- 
ments were,  for  the  most  part,  received  with  strong 
marks  of  applause  and  concurrence."  l 

The  meeting  was  held  on  the  10th  of  March  at 
Manchester.  In  their  ignorance  and  despair  many  of 
the  people  had  caught  at  the  idea  as  otfering  some 
hope,  and  from  4000  to  12,000  persons  assembled  at 
St.  Peter's  Field.  "  The  assemblage  consisted  almost 

1  Lords  Report  of  Committee,  1817,  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xxxvi.  p.  951. 


416         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"  entirely  of  operatives.  .  .  .  Many  of  the  individuals 
were  observed  to  have  blankets  (for  the  purpose  of 
sleeping  on  the  ground),  rugs,  or  large  coats,  rolled 
up  and  tied  knapsack-like  on  their  backs ;  some  had 
papers,  supposed  to  be  Petitions  rolled  up ;  and  some 
had  stout  walking-sticks.  The  magistrates  came  upon 
the  field  and  read  the  Riot  Act,  and  the  meeting  was 
afterwards  dispersed  by  the  military  and  special  con- 
stables, and  twenty-nine  persons  were  apprehended.  .  .  . 
On  the  Riot  Act  being  read  about  300  persons  left  the 
meeting  to  commence  their  march  to  London."  It 
was  of  course  a  contemptible  fiasco.  "  About  180 
reached  Macclesfield,"  where  the  first  night  was  spent ; 
"  about  a  score  arrived  at  Leek,  and  six  only  were  known 
to  pass  Ashbourne  Bridge.  And  so  ended  the  Blanket 
expedition ! " 

A  proceeding  such  as  this  strengthened  the  hands 
of  the  Government  in  their  demand  for  repressive 
legislation ;  not  that  outside  events  affected  them 
much  one  way  or  the  other,  for  with  a  mechanical  and 
sympathetic  majority  in  the  House  of  Commons  any 
measures  proposed  by  the  Government  were  bound  to 
pass.  The  repressive  measures  now  proposed  promptly 
became  law,  and  once  more  the  Platform  was  struck 
down  to  the  earth. 

Again,  in  1817,  as  in  1795,  it  was  asserted  by  the 
defenders  of  the  Bill  that  the  measure  would  not  inter- 
fere with  the  presentation  of  Petitions ;  yet,  as  if  to 
show  how  little  value  was  to  be  attached  to  such  asser- 
tions, Lord  Castlereagh  audaciously  boasted  that  the 
measure  of  1795  had  been  "the  means  of  preventing 
the  exercise  of  the  right  of  Petition ;  it  had  prevented 
that  right  from  being  made  the  indirect  means  of 

1  Bamford,  vol.  i.  p.  32. 


CHAP,  ix        THE  SUPPRESSION  OF  FREE  SPEECH  417 

corrupting  the  public  mind,  and  not  merely  corrupting, 
but  leading  it  on  to  the  perpetration  of  every  atrocity, 
high  treason,  felony,  and  rebellion." l 

It  is  certain,  at  any  rate,  that  the  measure  of  1817 
did  interfere  with  the  presentation  of  Petitions,  for,  after 
the  passing  of  the  Act,  there  was  an  absolute  and  com- 
plete cessation  both  of  public  meetings  and  Petitions, 
and  no  Petitions  were  presented  to  Parliament  except 
one  from  Birmingham,  and  that  one  not  from  a  public 


meeting. 


As  Cobbett  remarked  in  his  Register,  after  explain- 
ing the  provisions  of  the  Act,  "  This  being  the  law,  I 
leave  you  to  guess  whether  any  meetings  will  be  held 
again  except  those  which  are  called  by  persons  in 
authority,  and  what  sort  of  meetings  those  are  you 
know  well  enough." 

Indeed,  while  the  Bill  was  still  under  discussion,  a 
foretaste  of  what  would  come  when  it  was  passed  was 
given  at  Liverpool,  where  the  Mayor  refused  to  con- 
vene a  meeting  to  petition  Parliament  for  reform,  and 
endeavoured  to  prevent  that  communication  of  the 
people  to  Parliament  which  it  was  as  much  the  interest 
of  the  House  as  of  the  people  to  keep  open. 

The  meeting  had  been  nevertheless  held,  and  showed 
how  unjustifiable  was  the  action  of  the  Mayor,  for  the 
Petition  was  signed  by  14,000  people, — Lord  Sefton, 
who  presented  it,  attesting  to  their  respectability : 
"  Never  yet  was  a  Petition  more  respectably  signed." 

In  one  matter  only  was  this  Act  less  stringent  than 
its  prototype  of  1795  ;  it  was  to  continue  in  force  for 
a  shorter  period — only,  in  fact,  until  the  24th  of  July 
1818;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  on  this  occasion  it  was 
supplemented  by  the  suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xxxr.  p.  599. 


418         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

Act — a  tremendous  weapon  against  any  movement  on 
the  part  of  the  Platform,  any  loophole  of  escape 
through  the  meshes  of  one  Act  being  effectually  stopped 
by  the  other. 

The  effect  of  the  suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus 
Act  was  described  by  Bamford  :  "  Personal  liberty  not 
being  now  secure  from  one  hour  to  another,  many  of 
the  leading  reformers  were  induced  to  quit  their  homes, 
and  seek  concealment  where  they  could  obtain  it.  Open 
meetings  being  suspended,  secret  ones  ensued." l 

A  Committee  of  the  House  of  Lords,  which  was 
appointed  some  time  after  this,  has  also  described  the 
effect  of  this  legislation  :  "  During  part  of  the  month 
of  April  (1817)  an  intermission  appears  indeed  to  have 
taken  place  generally,  at  least  of  the  more  open  pro- 
ceedings.2 Public  meetings  in  large  bodies  could  no 
longer  be  convened,  except  under  the  regulations  of 
the  recent  Act  of  Parliament.  Numerous  meetings  of 
Societies  have  been  less  frequently  held  in  public-houses. 
In  some  districts  clubs  have  been  dissolved ;  in  others 
their  meetings  have  been  suspended,  or  have  been  held 
in  private  houses,  or  in  places  remote  from  observation. 
The  necessity  of  greater  caution  has  been  felt  and  incul- 
cated; communications  by  writing  have  been  discoun- 
tenanced ;  the  concealment  of  the  names  of  leading 
persons  has  been  recommended ;  and  it  has  been 
thought  better  that  a  few  persons  only  should  be 
entrusted  with  their  plans,  and  should  give  notice  to 
the  different  delegates  to  have  their  partisans  in  readi- 
ness to  act  when  required  and  as  directed.  These 
delegates  appointed  from  various  places  have  met  in 
small  numbers,  and  thus  kept  up  a  general  but  verbal 
correspondence  among  the  disaffected." 

1  Bamford,  vol.  i.  p.  42.  a  Parliameiitary  Debates,  vol.  xxxvi.  p.  954. 


CHAP,  ix    STATE  PROSECUTION  TO  CHECK  PETITIONS     419 

Not  content  with  legislating  against  the  rights  of 
public  meeting  and  Petitioning,  the  Government  made 
a  deliberate  attempt,  in  another  way,  to  interfere  with, 
and,  if  possible,  crush  out  the  last  vestiges  of  freedom  of 
speech.  Scotland  was  selected  as  the  scene  of  the  experi- 
ment, probably  an  example  there  being  deemed  desirable. 

A  meeting  had  been  held  at  Kilmarnock  on  the  7th 
December  1816,  at  which  resolutions  had  been  passed, 
and  a  Petition  adopted  to  the  Regent  and  both  Houses 
of  Parliament,  upon  the  distressed  state  of  the  country, 
and  the  subject  of  Parliamentary  reform.1 

Alexander  M'Laren,  a  half-starved  weaver,  who 
worked  fifteen  hours  a  day  for  the  miserable  wages  of 
five  shillings  a  week,  spoke  at  the  meeting.  He  was 
indicted  for  sedition  in  that  he  did  at  that  public 
"meeting,  which  was  attended  by  a  great  multitude  of 
persons,  chiefly  of  the  lower  orders,  wickedly  and 
feloniously  deliver  a  speech  containing  a  number  of 
seditious  and  inflammatory  remarks  and  assertions,  cal- 
culated to  degrade  and  bring  into  contempt  the  Govern- 
ment and  Legislature,  and  to  withdraw  therefrom  the 
confidence  and  affections  of  the  people,  and  to  fill  the 
realm  with  trouble  and  dissension." 

A  man  named  Baird  was  indicted  at  the  same  time 
for  printing  this  speech. 

The  "  wicked  and  seditious  "  words  charged  against 
M'Laren  were:  "That  our  sufferings  are  insupportable  is 
demonstrated  to  the  world ;  and  that  they  are  neither 
temporary  nor  occasioned  by  a  transition  from  war  to 
peace  is  palpable  to  all,  though  all  have  not  the  courage 
to  avow  it.  The  fact  is,  we  are  ruled  by  men  only 
solicitous  for  their  own  aggrandisement ;  and  they  care 

1  For  a  full  account  of  this  trial,  which  took  place  in  March  1817,  see  State 
Trials,  vol.  xxxiii.  p.  1,  et  seq. 


420         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"  no  further  for  the  great  body  of  the  people  than  (as) 
they  are  subservient  to  their  accursed  purposes.  If  you 
are  convinced  of  this,  my  countrymen,  I  would  therefore 
put  the  question — Are  you  degenerate  enough  to  bear  it? 
Shall  we,  whose  forefathers  set  limits  to[the  all-grasping 
power  of  Rome? — shall  we,  whose  forefathers,  at  the 
never-to-be-forgotten  field  of  Bannockburn,  told  the 
mighty  Edward,  at  the  head  of  the  most  mighty  army 
that  ever  trod  on  Britain's  soil,  '  Hitherto  shalt  thou 
come,  and  no  further '  ? — shall  we,  I  say,  whose  fore- 
fathers defied  the  efforts  of  foreign  tyranny  to  enslave 
our  beloved  country,  meanly  permit,  in  our  day,  without 
a  murmur?  a  base  oligarchy  to  feed  their  filthy  vermin 
on  our  vitals,  and  rule  us  as  they  will?  No,  my 
countrymen.  Let  us  lay  our  Petitions  at  the  foot  of  the 
throne,  where  sits  our  august  Prince,  whose  gracious 
nature  will  incline  his  ear  to  listen  to  the  cries  of  his 
people,  which  he  is  bound  to  do  by  the  laws  of  his 
country.  But  should  he  be  so  infatuated  as  to  turn  a 
deaf  ear  to  their  just  Petition,  he  has  forfeited  their 
allegiance.  Yes,  my  fellow-townsmen,  in  such  a  case,  to 
hell  with  our  allegiance." l 

The  Lord  Advocate,  who  prosecuted  him,  contended 
that  "  Any  speech  or  writing  calculated  and  intended 
to  vilify  the  House  of  Commons,  stating,  for  instance, 
that  it  is  not  the  House  of  Commons,  that  it  is  the 
mere  nominal  and  pretended  representative  of  the 
people,  and  does  not  represent  them,  that  it  has  become 
corrupt,  falls  under  the  crime  of  sedition." 

Mr.  Clerk,  who  defended  M'Laren,  made  a  most 
powerful  speech  :  "  If  the  right  of  petitioning  belongs  to 
the  people,  they  must  of  necessity  have  the  right  of 
deliberation  upon  the  subject  of  their  Petitions,  to  consult 

1  Lord  Cockburn  says  this  last  sentence  was  "  clearly  sedition." 


CHAP,  ix          THE  RIGHT  OF  FREE  DISCUSSION  421 

with  each  other  at  public  meetings,  to  be  advised  by  those 
who  are  able  to  advise  them,  or  think  themselves  able,  upon 
the  various  points  which  may  occur  in  considering  what 
are  grievances,  and  what  are  the  remedies  to  be  proposed. 
.  .  .  And  generally,  whatever  the  grievance  or  fancied 
grievance  is,  it  may  lawfully  be  the  subject  of  a  Petition 
to  the  Legislature,  and  for  the  same  reason  it  may  law- 
fully be  the  subject  of  deliberation  and  discussion,  even 
in  public  meetings  held  for  the  purpose  of  petitioning. 
.  .  .  There  can  be  no  limits  to  this  right  of  petitioning,  and 
previously  deliberating,  for  when  it  is  limited,  the  right 
is  gone.  The  right  is  to  present  unreasonable  as  well 
as  reasonable  Petitions.  Or  if  unreasonable  Petitions 
were  unlawful,  the  Legislature  alone  is  the  judge  of  what 
is  reasonable  or  unreasonable  in  Petitions.  If  the  right 
of  petitioning  could  be  restrained  by  the  courts  of  law, 
there  would  be  an  end  to  the  right  of  petitioning — a 
fundamental  law  of  this  monarchy,  a  law,  the  palladium 
of  our  other  rights.  ...  It  has  been  reserved  for  the 
present  Lord  Advocate  to  bring  such  a  case  as  the 
present  to  trial,  in  which,  if  the  verdict  find  the  persons 
guilty  of  sedition,  the  right  of  petitioning,  hitherto  un- 
challenged, seems  to  be  attacked  almost  in  direct  terms. 
Is  the  right  of  petitioning  then  to  be  interrupted  in  this 
extraordinary  manner  by  bringing  the  Petitions  into  the 
Court  of  Justiciary  ?  The  sacred  right  of  petitioning  is 
the  bulwark  of  the  right  of  free  discussion." 

Jeffrey,  in  his  defence  of  Baird  for  selling  reports  of 
the  meetings,  also  made  an  excellent  speech.  He  de- 
clared "  that  a  great  part  of  the  evils  arose  from  a  defect 
in  one  of  the  great  bodies  of  the  Legislature,  from  want 
of  due  communion  of  sentiment  between  the  body  of  the 
people,  and  those  whose  function  it  is  to  express  their 
sentiments  and  watch  over  their  interests. 


422         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

"  There  is  a  dissension  known  to  this  country,  and 
known  to  all  free  countries,  and  to  them  only,  which, 
however  terrible  it  may  appear  to  the  sons  of  habitual 
slavery,  or  the  minions  of  arbitrary  power,  or  the  con- 
tented and  envied  possessors  of  present  influence,  is  of 
that  wholesome  nature  that  on  it  the  life  and  health  of 
the  Constitution  ultimately  depend.  It  is  not  a  fright- 
ful commotion,  but  a  healthful  exercise,  not  an  exhaust- 
ing fever,  but  a  natural  movement  proceeding  from  the 
vigour  of  the  Constitution,  and  at  once  indicating  and 
maintaining  that  vigour  unimpaired.  In  a  free  country, 
where  the  principles  of  Government  are  well  under- 
stood, and  the  laws  well  administered,  parties  will  ever 
be  found  opposed  to  parties.  .  .  .  This  dissension  is  the 
life  and  heart  and  spirit  of  our  Constitution  ;  and  true 
policy  should  promote  discussion  on  those  great  points 
on  which  discussion  must  always  be  keen,  and,  in  some 
degree,  stormy  and  violent,  because  it  is  on  them  that 
the  liberty,  the  prosperity,  and  happiness  of  the  nation 
depend,  and  to  them  that  all  men  of  spirit,  ingenuity, 
and  talents  have  devoted  their  whole  lives.  .  .  .  If  this 
dissension  were  prevented,  liberty  would  be  extin- 
guished. That  very  hostility  which*  appears  to  excite 
so  much  apprehension  is  the  parent  of  public  prosperity, 
and  of  all  the  advantages  in  a  free  state  for  which  it  is 
worth  while  to  contend."  Though  the  Petition  was 
received  by  Parliament,  both  the  prisoners  were  con- 
victed ;  but  being  men  of  exemplary  character,  the 
Jury  recommended  them  to  mercy,  and  they  escaped 
with  a  sentence  of  six  months'  imprisonment  each,  and 
then  to  find  bail. 

The  subject  which  had  driven  the  Government  into 
thi%  wild  panic,  and  led  to  such  repressive  legislation, 
was  brought  before  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  20th 


CHAP,  ix  PARLIAMENTARY  REFORM  423 

of  May  by  Sir  F.  Burdett,  who  moved  for  a  Select 
Committee  "  to  take  into  consideration  the  state 
of  the  representatives  of  the  people  in  Parliament."1 
More  Petitions,  he  asserted,  had  been  presented  on 
this  subject  than  on  any  other  occasion  whatever,  for 
there  were  Petitions  from  every  part  of  the  country 
bearing  not  less  than  a  million  of  signatures.  "  The 
House  of  Commons  has  lost  its  former  connection  with 
the  people  ;  they  no  longer  regard  themselves  as  their 
stewards  or  servants,  but  as  a  master  uniting  in  himself 
all  the  different  springs  and  species  of  authority." 2 

Brand,  who  seconded  the  motion,  spoke  of  the  un- 
precedented energy  with  which  the  people  had  peti- 
tioned for  reform  :  "  There  had  been  at  no  former  period 
so  great  and  decided  an  expression  on  the  part  of  the 
public  in  favour  of  a  Parliamentary  reform." 

William  Lamb — afterwards  to  be  Lord  Melbourne 
and  Liberal  Prime  Minister  —  was  not  prepared  to 
attach  much  weight  to  this  expression  of  opinion. 

He  said :  "  When  I  consider  the  manner  in  which 
these  Petitions  have  been  prepared  and  procured,  the 
pilgrimages  which  have  been  undertaken  for  the  purpose 
of  promoting  them  ;  above  all,  when  I  recollect  the 
speeches  which  at  public  meetings  have  preceded  and 
recommended  them,  the  gross  misrepresentations,  the 
delusive  promises,  the  wild  hopes,  and  the  excessive 
exaggerations,  under  the  influence  of  which  they  have 
been  voted,  I  cannot  consent  to  consider  them  as  ex- 
pressing in  any  degree  the  cool,  deliberate,  well-under- 
stood sense  of  the  people  of  England." 3 

In  a  later  speech  (27th  June  1817)  he  said  :  "  What 
had  been  stated  at  those  meetings  respecting  Parlia- 

1  Hansard,  vol.  xxxvi.  p.  705.  3  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xxxvi. 

a  Ibid.  p.  728.  p.  790. 


424         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

"  mentary  reform,  and  the  declarations  that  they  were  to 
resort  to  physical  force  if  their  Petitions  were  rejected, 
indicated  a  most  dangerous  spirit.  In  fact,  the  Peti- 
tions which  had  been  presented  to  that  House  were  not 
Petitions  for  reform,  but  for  revolution,  since  they  prayed 
for  Annual  Parliaments  and  Universal  Suffrage." l 

One  of  the  illustrious  "  virtual  representatives  "  also 
took  occasion  to  express  his  feelings  on  the  subject. 

"  I  declare,"  said  the  Honourable  J.  Ward,  member 
for  the  rotten  and  corrupt  borough  of  Ivelchester,  with 
some  sixty  electors  purchasable  by  the  highest  bidder, — 
"  I  declare  that  a  motion  for  reform  in  Parliament  pro- 
duces upon  my  mind  the  same  effect  as  a  motion  for  a 
democracy — a  motion  for  a  revolution."2 

Seventy-seven  members  voted  for  Sir  Francis  Bur- 
dett's  proposal.  The  Government  phalanx  against  it 
numbered  265. 

One  more  measure  for  the  repression  of  the  Platform 
was  to  be  adopted  by  the  Government  before  the 
session  came  to  an  end.  The  suspension  of  the  Habeas 
Corpus  Act  was  to  expire  on  the  1st  July.  Before  that 
date  was  reached — namely,  on  the  3d  June — a  mes- 
sage came  from  the  Regent  with  more  papers  in  a  sealed 
bag,  and  again  in  both  Houses  Secret  Committees  were 
appointed. 

The  House  of  Lords  Committee  reported  on  the  12th 
June.  In  their  report  is  to  be  seen  the  same  deliberate 
effort  to  excite  panic,  and  to  exaggerate  and  make  the 
most  of  any  foolish  acts  of  a  few  rash  or  ignorant  men, 
if  not  actually  to  invent  alarms. 

Manchester  this  time  was  said  to  have  been  the 
intended  scene  of  an  insurrection.  The  Lords  Com- 
mittee betrayed  the  real  object  of  their  hostility  by 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xxxvi.  p.  1226.  2  Ibid.  p.  758. 


CHAP,  ix  THE  NOTTINGHAM  RISING  425 

making  a  deliberate  attempt  to  connect  the  cause  of 
Parliamentary  reform  in  Parliament  with  the  acts  of 
the  most  extreme  men  outside.  "  It  was,"  they  said, 
"  about  this  time  (May)  that  the  period  for  another 
general  rising  appears  to  have  been  fixed  for  as  early 
a  day  as  possible  after  the  discussion  of  an  expected 
motion  for  reform  in  Parliament."1 

As  if  to  give  colour  to  this  statement,  almost  the 
very  day  that  this  Eeport  was  presented  to  the  House 
of  Lords  came  news  of  a  "  rising  "  in  Derbyshire.  The 
House  of  Commons  Committee,  which  reported  a  few 
days  after  the  Lords  Committee,  were  able  to  refer  to  it. 
"  In  some  populous  villages  in  Derbyshire  a  more  open 
insurrection  took  place  on  the  9th  June.  ...  It  began 
with  attacks  upon  houses,  for  the  purpose  of  procuring 
arms,  in  one  of  which  a  servant  was  wantonly  shot. 
About  200  insurgents  were  soon  assembled,  mostly 
armed  either  with  pikes  or  with  firearms,  and  began 
their  march  towards  Nottingham,  in  expectation  of 
increasing  their  numbers  as  they  went,  and  of  finding 
that  place  in  full  insurrection.  .  .  .  They  were,  how- 
ever, intercepted  by  detachments  of  cavalry,  which 
came  up  with  them  in  different  directions,  and  totally 
dispersed  them."2 

Foolish  and  criminal  as  was  this  outbreak  its  cause 
could  be  easily  traced  to  its  actual  source.  It  was  not 
the  Platform  that  was  responsible  for  it.  Place  plainly 
puts  the  responsibility  on  other  shoulders.  He  says  : 
"  Attempts  had  been  made  by  means  of  spies  to  get 
up  treasonable  conspiracies  in  the  north  of  England, 
but  as  long  as  petitioning  the  Houses  of  Parliament 
was  thought  useful,  none,  not  even  the  meanest  and 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xxxvi.          2  Ibid.  p.  1095,  House  of  Commons 
p.  954.  Report. 


426         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

"most  ignorant  of  the  people,  could  be  trepanned  into 
acts  of  treason.1 

"  But  when  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  was  suspended 
.  .  .  they  were  able  to  seduce  a  few  miserable  men  to 
attempt  an  insurrection,  and  having  found  a  man  of 
resolute  and  desperate  character,  reduced  to  the  state  of 
a  parish  pauper,  they  placed  him  at  the  head  under  the 
denomination  of 'the  Nottingham  captain'  (Brandreth)."2 

But  lest  his  statement  should  be  regarded  as  pre- 
judiced, a  passage  from  the  Report  of  the  House  of 
Lords  Committee  may  be  quoted,  which  goes  far  to 
admit  the  truth  of  Place's  assertion. 

After  saying  that  the  intelligence  they  received 
rested  "in  many  of  its  parts5'  upon  the  reports  of 
persons  "  who  have  apparently  engaged  in  these 
criminal  transactions  with  the  view  of  obtaining  in- 
formation, and  imparting  it"  to  the  authorities,  the 
Committee  said :  "  Your  Committee  have  seen  reason 
to  apprehend  that  the  language  and  conduct  of  some 
of  these  may,  in  some  instances,  have  had  the  effect 
of  encouraging  those  designs  which  it  was  intended 
they  should  only  be  the  instruments  of  detecting." 3 

The  House  of  Commons  Committee  reported  on  the 
20th  of  June.  Both  Committees  declared  that  it  would 
not  yet  be  safe  to  rely  for  the  preservation  of  public 
tranquillity  upon  the  ordinary  power  of  the  law.  And 
yet  the  Lords  Committee  expressed  "the  fullest  con- 
fidence in  the  general  loyalty  and  good  disposition,  not 
only  of  those  portions  of  the  kingdom  which  have 
hitherto  remained  in  a  great  degree  untainted,  but  of 
by  far  the  most  considerable  part  of  those  very  districts 

1  Place,  MSS.,  27,809,  p.  83.  tated,   11   transported  for  life,   4   for 

2  For  this  riot  35  men  were  arraigned       fourteen  years. 

— 3  of  whom  were  hanged  and  decapi-          *  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xxxvi. 

p.  950,  1817. 


CHAP,  ix    HABEAS  CORPUS  SUSPENSION  ACT  ARRESTS    427 

which  are  the  chief  scenes  of  the  operations  of  the 
disaffected — a  confidence  which  very  recent  experience 
has  satisfactorily  confirmed." 

The  Commons  Committee  said  :  "In  the  late  insur- 
rection on  the  borders  of  Derbyshire  and  Nottinghamshire 
the  mass  of  the  population,  through  which  the  insurgents 
passed,  evinced  the  utmost  abhorrence  of  their  designs 
and  projects.  In  other  instances,  where  the  inhabitants 
have  been  called  on  to  aid  the  civil  power,  that  call  has 
been  answered  with  alacrity  and  zeal." 

And  yet  the  Reports  of  the  Committees  resulted  in 
the  application  by  Ministers  to  Parliament  for  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act. 
It  is  interesting  getting  any  information  we  can  as  to 
the  manner  in  which  the  Government  had  exercised  the 
powers  conferred  on  them  by  the  suspension  of  the 
Habeas  Corpus  Act.  From  a  Return  presented  to  the 
House  of  Commons  on  the  19th  June  it  would  appear 
that  on  that  date  there  were  thirty-two  persons  in 
custody,  the  youngest  of  whom  was  eighteen  years  of 
age,  and  the  oldest  seventy-three ;  but  the  Return  is 
defective,  in  that  it  does  not  give  the  total  number  of 
persons  who  had  been  arrested  under  the  Act,  and  a 
stray  remark  in  the  House  of  Commons  leaves  one  to 
infer  that  several  other  persons  had  been  in  custody 
but  had  been  released.1 

It  is  useless  referring  to  the  debates  that  ensued  on 
the  proposal  of  the  Government  for  their  being  re- 
entrusted  with  this  power.  They  were  but  repetitions  of 

1  See  a  Return,  printed  by  order  of  present  Session  of  Parliament,  for  en- 
the  House  of  Commons,  "  of  the  abliug  His  Majesty  to  secure  and  de- 
number  of  persons  now  in  confinement  tain  such  persons  as  His  Majesty  shall 
in  Great  Britain,  by  Warrant  of  either  suspect  are  conspiring  against  His 
of  the  Secretaries  of  State,  or  of  six  Person  and  Government — with  their 
Privy  Councillors — detained  under  the  ages,  and  the  places  of  their  confine- 
provisions  of  an  Act,  passed  in  the  ment." — Parliameiitary  Papers,  1817. 


428         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

their  former  statements  and  asseverations.  Lord  Grey 
stated  the  unanswerable  reasons  when  he  said  that  if  mis- 
chievous men  took  advantage  of  the  existing  distress  to 
encourage  irritation,  and  used  the  opportunity  afforded 
by  the  meetings  in  favour  of  reform  to  preach  revolu- 
tionary doctrines,  the  suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus 
Act  was  not  the  proper  remedy  for  the  discontents  that 
prevailed.  Nor  was  it  either  politic  or  just,  because* 
there  were  a  few  designing  persons  ready  to  take 
advantage  of  the  distressed,  to  urge  them  to  acts  of 
violence,  that  the  whole  people  of  England  were  to  be 
deprived  of  their  liberties,  and  those  discontents  aggra- 
vated which  a  wise  Government  would  endeavour  to 
remove. 

No  reasons,  no  argument,  however,  availed  against 
the  Government,  though  all  reason  and  all  argument  was 
against  them.  The  suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus 
Act  was  continued  until  the  1st  March  1818,  and 
Parliament  having  done  sufficient  for  one  session  was 
prorogued.1 

Once  more  then  was  the  Platform  struck  down  and 
silenced  for  the  time,  as  effectually  as  it  had  been  by 
Pitt  in  1795. 

No  public  meetings  were  to  be  held  except  with  the 
sanction  of  the  local  authorities  ;  no  Platform  speech  was 
to  be  delivered  except  subject  to  the  approval  of  the 
most  stupid  or  bigotted  magistrate  who  chose  to  be 
present ;  any  speech  not  pleasing  to  the  Government 
rendered  the  speaker  liable  to  an  ex-qfficio  information 
for  libel,  if  not  to  an  indictment  for  sedition,  or  high 
treason ;  and  if  all  else  failed,  the  suspension  of  the 
Habeas  Corpus  Act  enabled  the  Ministers  to  arrest  and 
imprison  any  one  they  chose  to  suspect  of  treason. 

1  57  Geo.  III.  cap.  55,  30th  June  1817. 


CHAP,  ix     SECOND  SUPPRESSION  OF  THE  PLATFORM       429 

It  is  curious,  indeed,  how  all  the  circumstances  of 
the  suppression  of  the  Platform  in  1817  were  so  close  a 
repetition  of  its  suppression  in  1795  ;  but  most  curious 
of  all  is  the  fact  that  in  this  latter  period,  when  Eng- 
land was  not  engaged  in  a  great  war  for  her  very  exist- 
ence as  in  1795,  but  was  at  absolute  peace  with  the 
whole  world,  and  when  the  public  mind  was  not  in  the 
state  of  fevered  panic  which  ensued  from  the  terrors  and 
horrors  of  the  French  Revolution,  the  Government 
should  have  demanded  more  wholesale  measures  of 
repression  than  even  Pitt  demanded  and  took  in  1795. 

In  1817  Government  demanded  and  got  the  sus- 
pension of  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  and  the  Act  against 
public  meetings.  In  1795  Pitt  was  content  to  rely  alone 
upon  the  latter  ;  for  the  suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus 
Act  had  expired  before  he  introduced  the  Bill  against 
Seditious  Meetings.  It  is  true  that  in  1801  he  had  to 
obtain  from  Parliament  both  those  measures,  but  it  was 
only  for  a  very  short  period ;  and  in  his  hands  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  Acts  was  infinitely  less  tyrannical 
and  despotic  than  it  was  in  the  hands  of  Lord  Liverpool, 
Lord  Sidmouth,  and  Lord  Castlereagh.  The  truth  was, 
that  the  Government  of  1817  felt  their  power  and  the 
power  of  their  class  falling  away  from  them — felt  the 
whole  order  of  things  as  they  loved  it  beginning  to 
move  and  shake  under  their  feet.  Nothing  except  the 
fact  that  the  Parliament  of  1817  was  practically  the 
same  body  as  that  of  1795,  nominated  by  borough- 
mongers,  filled  with  placemen,  and  corrupt  to  its  very 
core,  could  have  enabled  the  Government  to  have 
carried  such  atrocious  proposals,  for  if  Parliament  had 
not  changed,  the  country  had.  In  the  interval  between 
1795  and  1817  great  changes  had  come  over  the  people  ; 
their  numbers  had  increased  ;  their  power  multiplied 


430        THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

enormously  ;  they  had  become  more  resolute  and  deter- 
mined to  obtain  their  proper  share  in  the  Government  of 
the  country ;  less  disposed  to  submit  to  a  system  of 
Government  which  they  believed  to  be,  and  which  was, 
unjust.  The  Government  thought  to  silence  opposition 
by  prohibiting  public  meetings,  and  the  public  discus- 
sion of  grievances ;  thought  to  affright  people  with  the 
penalty  of  death  for  not  leaving  a  meeting  on  the  order 
of  a  magistrate  ;  but  the  Government  dared  not  put  its 
own  infamous  law  into  operation ;  and  so  far  as  I  am 
aware  no  trace  is  to  be  found  in  the  legal  records  of  the 
country  of  any  execution,  or  of  any  sentence  of  death, 
or  even  of  any  trial  on  the  capital  charge  under  this 
section  of  the  Act.  That  the  Government,  however, 
calmly  and  deliberately,  proposed  these  wholesale 
measures  against  freedom  of  speech,  and  that  Parlia- 
ment sanctioned  and  approved  them  by  large  majorities, 
are  facts  which  show  with  what  bitter  rage  the  growth 
of  the  Platform  was  regarded  by  the  governing  party  of 
that  time ;  for  that  the  Platform  had  grown,  and  was 
growing,  must  have  been  evident  enough  even  to  them. 
It  was  no  longer  weakly  struggling  into  existence.  It 
was  already  a  power  in  the  land ;  it  had  become  part 
and  parcel  of  the  public  life  of  the  people  ;  it  was  as  in- 
dispensable to  their  political  existence  as  food  was  to 
their  physical  existence,  and  it  had  made  itself  offensive 
to  the  governing  classes  and  authorities.  Once  more 
then  the  Government  struck  hard  —  harder,  in  fact, 
than  ever  before,  and  silenced  it ;  they  were  still  able 
to  do  this,  but  though  for  a  time  they  might  succeed  in 
suppressing  or  checking  the  Platform,  the  periods  in 
which  the  Platform  would  submit  to  suppression,  indeed 
to  anything  but  absolute  freedom,  were  becoming 
shorter  and  shorter. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  PLATFORM  AT  THE  GENERAL  ELECTION  OF  1818 

THE  year  1818  opened  under  somewhat  brighter 
circumstances  for  the  country  than  could  have  been 
anticipated  some  six  or  eight  months  earlier. 

In  the  course  of  the  autumn  of  1817  the  prices 
of  provisions  had  fallen,  the  demand  for  labour  had 
increased,  agriculture,  trade,  and  manufacturing  industry 
had  improved  ;  and  when  Parliament  met  at  the  end  of 
January  1818,  the  situation  was  deemed,  even  by  the 
Government,  no  longer  to  require  the  continuance  of 
the  suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act.  The  Govern- 
ment, therefore,  instead  of  waiting  until  the  1st  of 
March,  when  the  suspension  would  have  expired, 
magnanimously  applied  to  Parliament  for  its  immediate 
repeal.  Lord  Castlereagh  declaring  that  "  the  prosperity 
of  our  commerce,  and  the  vigilance  of  the  magistracy  had 
put  an  end  to  the  great  mass  of  danger." l  No  informa- 
tion is  available  as  to  the  actual  number  of  persons 
who  had  been  arrested  under  it.  The  number  in 
custody  in  June  1817  has  been  given,  but  that  being 
only  for  the  number  on  a  particular  date  was  manifestly 
only  a  partial  record.  Place  says,  though  upon  what 
authority  I  know  not,  that  up  to  the  autumn  of  1817, 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xxxvii.  p.  163. 


432         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

96  persons  were  seized  and  confined  on  charges  of  treason 
in  England,  and  37  in  Scotland,  or  a  total  of  133,  but 
many  arrests  may  have  been  made  after  that  date,  so 
his  information  is  also  incomplete.1 

The  Government,  though  abandoning  the  power  a 
fortnight  earlier  than  they  need  have  done,  asked, 
however,  for  an  Act  for  "  indemnifying  "  persons  who, 
since  the  26th  of  January  1817,  had  acted  in  appre- 
hending, imprisoning,  or  detaining  in  custody  persons 
suspected  of  high  treason  or  treasonable  practices,  and 
in  the  suppression  of  tumultuous  and  unlawful 
assemblies.  And  Parliament  was  called  on  to  pass  a 
Bill  to  this  effect  "  in  justice  to  his  Majesty's  Ministers, 
and  to  the  Magistrates  who  had  acted  upon  the 
suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  in  the  disturbed 
districts." 

The  Bill,  of  course,  promptly  became  law.2  The 
preamble  recited  that  a  traitorous  conspiracy  had  been 
formed  in  Great  Britain  to  overthrow  the  Government 
by  means  of  a  general  insurrection,  and  that  it  had 
been  deemed  necessary  to  imprison,  and  detain  several 
persons  suspected  of  high  treason,  to  search  their  houses, 
and  to  seize  their  papers,  etc.,  and  that  it  was  necessary 
to  protect  the  informers  against  such  persons. 

"  And  whereas  some  of  the  said  Acts  done  may  not 
have  been  strictly  justifiable  in  law,  but  being  done  for 
the  preservation  of  the  public  peace  and  safety,  it  is  fit 
that  the  persons  doing  the  same  should  be  saved 
harmless  in  respect  thereof,"  it  was  enacted  that  all 
actions  and  proceedings  on  account  of  anything  done  in 
apprehending  and  imprisoning  persons  charged  with 
high  treason,  treasonable  practices,  etc.,  should  be  void, 

1  Place,  MSS.,  27,809,  p.  86.  2  See  Act  58  Geo.  III.  cap.  6  (17th 

March  1818). 


CHAP,  x  REVIVAL  OF  THE  PLATFORM  433 

and  the  persons  against  whom  such  actions  were  brought 
should  be  indemnified  for  any  acts  done  by  them. 

The  Bill  was  truly  described  by  Sir  S.  Romilly  "  as  a 
Bill  to  take  away  all  legal  remedies  from  those  who  had 
suffered  an  illegal  and  arbitrary  exercise  of  authority." 

"  With  the  restoration  of  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act," 
wrote  Bamford,  from  Manchester,  the  then  centre  of 
agitation,  "  the  agitation  for  reform  was  renewed  "  ;  but 
the  Seditious  Meetings  Act  being  in  force,  it  was  renewed 
only  on  a  very  small  scale,  and  in  a  very  tentative  way. 
Several  hundred  petitions  for  Parliamentary  reform 
were  presented  from  Bristol,  Leeds,  Newcastle-on-Tyne, 
and  other  places,  all  signed  by  only  twenty  persons,  and 
there  had  been  no  preliminary  meeting,  people  evidently 
being  under  the  impression  that  under  the  altered  state 
of  the  law  no  Petition  should  be  signed  by  more  than 
twenty  persons. 

Westminster,  which  was  the  centre  of  liberalism  or 
radicalism,  and  where  the  officials  were  of  the  same  way 
of  thinking  as  the  people,  was  able  to  hold  a  meeting  in 
favour  of  Parliamentary  reform  despite  the  provisions 
of  the  Seditious  Meetings  Act.  It  was  held  on  the 
28th  March ;  and  in  the  next  month  a  Petition  for 
reform,  purporting  to  be  from  several  thousands  of 
persons  assembled  at  Royton  in  Lancashire,  was  pre- 
sented to  the  House  of  Commons,  but  was  rejected 
— all  which  must  be  taken  as  showing  that  Parlia- 
mentary reform  and  not  revolution  was  really  what 
was  uppermost  in  men's  minds. 

It  was  unfortunate  for  a  Government  so  anxious  to 
suppress  public  meetings  as  the  one  which  had  passed 
the  Seditious  Meetings  Act,  that  a  general  election 
should  have  become  necessary,  and  incitement  be  again 
given  to  popular  assemblies,  and  occasion  for  the  Plat- 


434         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

form.  No  Government  had  ever  yet  dared  to  go  the 
length  of  attempting  to  interfere  with  meetings  for  the 
purposes  of  the  election  of  members  of  Parliament ;  and 
even  this  Government  had  inserted  a  proviso  in  the 
Seditious  Meetings  Act  of  1817,  stating  "That  nothing 
therein  contained  should  by  any  construction  whatever 
be  deemed  or  taken  to  apply  to  or  affect  any  meeting 
convened,  called,  or  holden  for  the  election  of  Members 
of  Parliament,  or  any  persons  attending  such  meeting." 

The  Act,  so  far  at  least  as  meetings  were  concerned, 
was  to  expire  on  the  24th  July  1818 ;  but  before  that 
date  had  been  reached — namely,  on  the  10th  of  June — 
Parliament  was  dissolved,  and  during  the  rest  of  that 
month,  and  during  the  greater  part  of  July,  the  country 
was  plunged  in  the  turmoil  of  a  general  election. 

Advantage  may  be  taken  of  the  event  as  affording 
material  for  enabling  us  to  form  an  idea  of  what  part 
the  Platform  took  in  a  general  election  before  Parlia- 
ment was  reformed,  and  also  to  draw  a  most  instructive 
comparison  between  its  scope  and  power  at  that  period 
and  the  present.  Fortunately,  we  have  a  comprehensive 
account  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Platform  at  this 
election  in  a  work  published  immediately  after  by  an 
anonymous  author,  called  "  The  Late  Elections :  an 
Impartial  Statement  of  all  Proceedings  connected  with 
the  Progress  and  Result  of  the  Late  Elections." l 

The  main  points  of  interest,  so  far  as  the  Platform 
is  concerned,  are  three — namely,  how  far  did  Ministers 
at  this  period  of  our  history  use  the  Platform  at  election 
time  for  putting  a  definite  policy  before  the  nation  for 
decision,  and  for  gaining  adherents  to  themselves ;  next, 
how  far  did  candidates  for  Parliamentary  position  use  it 
as  a  means  of  securing  votes ;  and  lastly,  how  far  did 

1  Published  in  London,  1818. 


CHAP,  x  MINISTERS  AND  THE  PLATFORM  435 

the  electors  use  it  for  exercising  a  control  over  the 
representatives  and  exacting  pledges  from  them  ? 

As  regards  the  first  of  these  points,  it  may  be  stated 
at  once  that  on  this  occasion  Ministers  themselves  issued 
no  manifesto  to  the  country  from  or  by  the  Platform. 
They  appear  rather  to  have  put  forward  their  claims  for 
a  renewal  of  confidence  in  the  Eegent's  speech  which 
prorogued  Parliament  immediately  before  its  dissolution. 
The  Prince  Regent  was  made  to  say1  (10th  June  1818) : 
"  On  closing  this  Session,  I  think  it  proper  to  inform 
you  that  it  is  my  intention  forthwith  to  dissolve  the 
present,  and  to  give  direction  for  calling  a  new  Parlia- 
ment. In  making  this  communication,  I  cannot  refrain 
from  adverting  to  the  important  change  which  has 
occurred  in  the  situation  of  this  country,  and  of  Europe, 
since  I  first  met  you  in  this  place."  He  then  drew  a 
strongly-coloured  contrast  between  England's  position 
at  the  time  when  Napoleon  was  at  the  height  of  his 
power,  and  her  position  and  possessions  in  1818  ;  and 
he  went  on  :  "By  the  unexampled  exertions  which  you 
enabled  me  to  make  ...  I  had  the  happiness,  by  the 
blessing  of  Divine  Providence,  to  terminate,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  His  Majesty's  allies,  the  most  eventful  and 
sanguinary  contest  in  which  Europe  had  for  centuries 
been  engaged,  with  unparalleled  success  and  glory." 

This  evidently  was  the  ground  on  which  the  Govern- 
ment expected  to  get  the  approval  of  the  electorate. 
Lord  Liverpool,  the  Prime  Minister,  who  was  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  never  set  foot  on  the  Platform  before 
the  election,  or  endeavoured  in  any  other  public  way 
than  through  the  Regent's  speech,  to  put  any  issue  before 
the  country.  Nor  did  any  of  the  individual  Ministers 
before  the  election  trouble  themselves  to  use  the  Plat- 

1  Hansard,  vol.  xxxviii.  p.  1315. 


436         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

form  for  the  purpose  of  gaining  adherents  to  their 
general  policy  or  of  swaying  the  electorate.  Such  an 
idea  never  appears  to  have  entered  their  head  as  either 
necessary,  useful,  or  desirable ;  in  fact,  all  their  ideas 
were  in  the  opposite  direction. 

Lord  Liverpool's  cabinet  in  1818  consisted  of  four- 
teen members,  eight  of  whom  were  peers.  The  six 
commoners  were  Lord  Castlereagh,  Foreign  Secretary ; 
Vansittart,  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer ;  Canning, 
President  of  the  Board  of  Control ;  Bathurst,  Chancellor 
of  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster ;  Pole,  Master  of  the  Mint ; 
and  F.  J.  Robinson,  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade. 
Two  of  these  six — namely,  Vansittart  and  Bathurst — 
sat  for  the  borough  of  Harwich,  which  had  always  been  a 
Treasury  borough.  The  number  of  voters  was  32,  and 
every  one  of  the  32  was  under  the  direct  control  of  the 
Treasury,  and  simply  did  as  they  were  told.  There 
was  no  contest  here.  A  public  dinner  was  held  in  the 
evening  after  the  election,  which  one  of  the  Ministers 
"  favoured  with  his  presence,"  but  his  speech,  if 
one  was  made,  was  not  considered  worth  repeating 
in  print  to  the  outer  world.  F.  J.  Robinson  was 
returned  for  Ripon.  Here  there  were  146  electors,  but 
most  of  them  "  were  the  property  of"  a  Miss  Lawrence, 
who,  to  judge  by  the  result,  thought  that  Mr.  Robinson 
was  the  fittest  person  on  whom  her  favour  could  be 
bestowed.  Platforming  here  was  therefore  quite  super- 
fluous. Pole  was  returned  for  the  Queen's  County  in 
Ireland  after  a  contest ;  but  in  those  times  the  Queen's 
County  was  a  very  remote  place,  and  its  electoral 
doings,  or  rather  the  speeches  at  election  time,  were 
of  little,  I  might  say,  no  interest  to  the  British 
public.  Lord  Castlereagh,  the  Foreign  Secretary,  was 
returned  for  the  county  of  Down,  also  at  that  time 


CHAP,  x  LORD  CASTLEREAGH'S  SPEECH  437 

remote  from  the  centre  of  political  life  and  influence. 
A  contest  here  was  altogether  out  of  the  question,  as  is 
evident  from  the  description  which  Oldfield  has  given 
of  the  state  of  the  electorate  in  that  county.  He  wrote  : 
"  It  contains  30,000  freeholders,  who  elect  the  friends 
of  the  Marquis  of  Downshire  (Lord  Castlereagh's 
father)  without  a  contest.  To  ensure  this  object,  the 
Marquis's  estate  has  been  divided,  subdivided,  and 
again  divided,  until  it  has  become  a  warren  of  free- 
holders, and  the  scheme  has  completely  succeeded." l 
But  if  no  contest  was  necessary,  Lord  Castlereagh  did 
not  object  to  use  the  Platform  for  a  speech  on  the  occa- 
sion, though  the  date  on  which  it  was  made  could 
scarcely  have  influenced  electors  or  the  elections  in 
England.  It  is  such  an  entertaining  illustration  of  the 
ministerial  oratory  at  that  time  that  it  is  well  worth 
quoting. 

Lord  Castlereagh,  ".in  a  most  eloquent  and  appro- 
priate manner,  contrasted  the  time  when  he  last  visited 
this  country  with  the  present."  :  "  The  country,"  he 
observed,  "  was  then  in  the  utmost  distress  owing  to 
the  recurrence  from  a  state  of  war  to  that  of  peace,  for 
we  had  been  engaged  in  a  contest  for  our  very  existence 
as  a  nation,  and  in  that  contest  Great  Britain  had 
triumphed,  and  crowned  herself  with  glory.  Provi- 
dence, however,  then,  in  order  to  check  our  exultation, 
had  visited  us  with  a  most  inclement  season.  He  recol- 
lected, in  a  particular  manner,  that  the  wheat  on  a  farm 
which  was  occupied  by  his  father,  was  then  covered  with 
snow.  Now,  the  contrast  was  most  grateful,  and  it  was 
his  hope  that  prosperity  would  again  visit  the  land. 
Nothing  could  exceed  the  beautiful  verdure  of  this 

1  Oldfield's    Representative  History,       p.    438,  which  takes  the  report  from 
vol.  vi.  p.  227.  The  Belfast  Xeics  Letter. 

2  See  The  Examiner,  12th  July  1818, 


438         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

"  happy  country,  and  he  could  assure  them  it  was  not 
confined  to  this  country,  but  it  was  general.  Arts  and 
manufactures  also  were  again  flourishing,  and  all  was 
one  active  scene  of  employment.  Linen  had  again 
found  a  good  market,  and  he  felt  confident  that  their 
abundant  harvest  would  find  a  market  in  Great  Britain." 
He  further  observed  "  That  every  human  institution  was 
liable  to  defects ;  but  every  person  must  be  convinced 
that  under  no  Constitution  did  the  people  enjoy  a 
greater  share  of  civil  and  religious  liberty  than  in  Great 
Britain ;  and  as  long  as  freedom  of  discussion  in  both 
Houses  of  Parliament  existed,  as  long  as  we  were  pos- 
sessed of  a  free  Press,  no  real  abuse  would  be  brought 
forward  without  its  correction  or  a  remedy  being  found. 
Changes  or  reforms  must  take  place  deliberately,  for  all 
changes  made  hastily  or  abruptly  came  to  no  good." 

One  is  almost  tempted  to  believe  that  this  silliness 
was  palmed  off  on  the  newspapers  as  a  practical  joke. 

The  remaining  Cabinet  Minister  who  sat  in  the 
House  of  Commons  was  George  Canning.  His  is  the 
only  case  in  this  general  election  of  a  Minister  contest- 
ing one  of  the  larger  constituencies  in  the  kingdom. 
He  contested  Liverpool,  where  there  were  2600  electors, 
and  where,  as  Oldfield  tells  us,  "  The  corporation  always 
influences  the. return  of  one  member.  In  the  choice  of 
the  other  the  freemen  are  very  eccentric." l  He  had,  it  will 
be  remembered,  contested  it  in  1812  against  Brougham, 
and  therefore  he  was  familiar  with  the  nature  of  the 
work.  He  spoke  often,  but  there  is  not  to  be  found  in 
his  speeches  any  trace  of  an  idea  that  he  could  in  any 
way  influence  other  elections  than  that  which  he  was 
fighting  by  any  speeches  which  he  could  make.  It  was 
not  until  the  election  was  over  that  he  delivered  a 

1  Oldfield's  Representative  History,  vol.  iv.  p.  107. 


CHAP,  x     NON-CABINET  MINISTERS  AND  THEIR  SEATS     439 

speech  which  was  meant  for  a  larger  audience  than  the 
people  of  Liverpool. 

Thus  then,  out  of  the  six  Cabinet  Ministers  who 
were  in  the  House  of  Commons,  one  alone  faced  the 
ordeal  of  an  appeal  to  a  large  constituency.  Evidently, 
therefore,  the  electoral  Platform  played  but  a  small  part 
then  in  ministerial  calculations.  This  same  conclusion 
is  confirmed  if  we  investigate  the  cases  of  some  of  the 
minor  members  of  the  Government — that  is  to  say,  those 
who  were  not  in  the  Cabinet. 

Lord  Palmerston,  the  Secretary  of  War,  was  re- 
turned for  Cambridge  University  without  a  contest,  and 
without  a  speech.  Charles  Long,  the  Paymaster  of  the 
Forces,  was  returned  for  Haslemere,  a  pocket  borough 
with  64  voters,  the  property  of  the  Earl  of  Lonsdale. 
Wallace,  Vice-President  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  was 
returned  for  Weymouth,  where  the  few  voters  that 
there  were,  were  "  the  property  of  an  individual,  and 
their  decision  entirely  at  his  pleasure." 

The  Attorney-General  was  returned  for  Dorchester, 
where,  though  there  were  200  electors,  the  Earl  of 
Shaftesbury  had  the  nomination  of  one  member ;  and 
the  Solicitor-General  was  returned  for  Eye,  where  the 
nomination  of  Lord  Cornwallis  "  was  implicitly  sub- 
mitted to." 

Charles  Grant,  the  Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland,  sat 
for  Inverness-shire,  of  which  county  constituency  he 
was  the  "  Patron,"  and  could  therefore  return  himself, 
which  he  did.  There  was  no  contest,  and  as  there  were 
but  55  electors  in  the  county,  many  of  whom  would 
not  attend  the  election,  speechifying  was  scarcely  to  be 
expected.  Mr.  Grant,  however,  made  a  speech,  which 
was  quite  thrown  away  so  far  as  electors  were  con- 
cerned, but  which  for  us  throws  much  light  on  the 


440         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

inner  workings  of  the  minds  of  some  of  those  holding 
high  official  position  at  this  period,  and  explains  how 
readily  they  gave  themselves  to  the  repressive  measures 
of  the  previous  session. 

"  With  respect  to  the  necessity,  the  indispensable 
duty  of  maintaining  the  Constitution  in  all  its  parts, 
and  of  transmitting  it  unimpaired  to  our  posterity,  we 
are  one  and  indivisible.  Against  those  pernicious 
maxims  of  modern  times,  which,  under  the  pretext  of 
correcting,  would  subvert  the  Constitution ;  against 
that  system,  if  anything  so  vague  in  its  notions,  and  so 
irregular  in  its  movements  can  be  called  a  system — 
against  that  system,  as  false  in  policy  as  it  is  spurious 
in  philosophy,  as  absurd  in  theory  as  it  is  foul  and 
bloody  in  practice — against  that  system,  which  has  for 
its  object  spoliation,  and  for  its  means  impiety  and 
anarchy,  which  would  teach  us  that  government,  as 
such,  is  oppression ;  that  social  order  and  tyranny  are 
synonymous  terms ;  that  the  law  of  property  is  the  law 
of  robbery  ;  that  there  is  nothing  sacred  in  morals, 
nothing  venerable  and  adorable  in  religion,  —  against 
this  system  I  am  persuaded  that  we  are  prepared,  heart 
and  hand,  to  contend  even  to  the  last  gasp.  We  love 
the  Constitution — that  Constitution  which  is  equal  to 
the  rich  and  the  poor — that  Constitution  which  was  the 
cradle  that  sheltered  our  infancy,  is  now  the  magnifi- 
cent temple  in  which  our  manhood  is  consecrated  to 
virtue  and  renown." l 

From  this  review  of  the  position  of  the  leading 
members  of  the  Government  as  regarded  constituencies 
it  is  evident  that,  excepting  Canning,  not  one  single 
member  of  the  Government  in  the  Cabinet,  or  out  of 
it,  need  have  been  influenced  in  Parliament  in  any  way 

1  The  Late  Elections,  p.  451. 


CHAP,  x  CONTESTED  ELECTIONS  441 

by  a  regard  to  the  views  of  his  constituents,  or  be 
under  any  necessity  of  appealing  to  them  from  the 
Platform  for  their  judgment  and  approval.  The  fact  is 
a  most  important  one,  and  meant  much.  Ministers 
and  sub-ministers,  in  fact,  took  very  good  care  of  them- 
selves so  far  as  constituencies  were  concerned,  and  were 
practically  completely  independent  of  any  electoral 
control  whatever.  No  wonder  then  that  they  objected 
to  Parliamentary  reform.  Their  example  was  followed 
by  as  many  ordinary  or  non-official  members  of  Par- 
liament as  possible. 

Oldfield,  in  his  Representative  History,1  written 
about  1815-17,  stated  that  in  England  and  Wales  16 
members  were  returned  by  Government  nomination, 
218  members  were  returned  by  the  nomination  of  87 
peers,  and  137  members  by  the  nomination  of  90 
commoners,  or  a  total  of  371  members  in  England  and 
Wales  wrere  returned  practically  by  nomination. 

Allowing  for  some  exaggeration  in  his  calculation, 
though  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  he  exagger- 
ated the  evil  state  of  so-called  Parliamentary  repre- 
sentation, it  is  evident  enough  that  the  scope  for 
Platform  work  at  election  time  was  by  no  means  so 
considerable  as  at  first  sight  might  be  thought.  A 
detailed  though  brief  account  of  some  of  the  elections 
will  enable  us,  however,  to  form  a  clearer  idea. 

At  this  election  there  were  95  contests  in  Great 
Britain,  of  which  75  were  in  English  boroughs  and  10 
in  English  counties,  5  in  Scotch  boroughs  and  5  in 
Scotch  counties.  Many  of  these  contests  were  quite 
unimportant,  from  the  Platform  point  of  view.  Thus 
at  Camelford,  in  Cornwall,  the  successful  candidates  got 
13  votes,  and  the  unsuccessful  10,2  but  then  a  "contest 

1  Vol.  vi.  p.  292.  2  Tlw  Late  Elcdiom,  p.  55. 


442         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"  for  a  Cornish  borough  has  nothing  to  do  with  political 
principles  so  far  as  votes  were  concerned,"  and  both 
sets  of  candidates  were  in  the  ministerial  interest.  At 
Ilchester,  where  there  were  60  electors,  there  was  a 
personal  and  not  a  political  contest ;  at  Cardiff  "  a 
friendly  opposition  to  save  some  other  " ;  at  numerous 
other  places  the  contests  were  mainly  for  family  influ- 
ence. Thus  at  Chester,  "  The  contest  does  not  appear 
to  be  founded  upon  the  merit  or  demerit  of  any  of  the 
candidates,  or  in  favour  of  any  particular  political 
opinions,  but  solely  to  rest  upon  personal  like  and 
dislike  to  one  particular  family  " ; 1  and  of  the  contest 
at  Evesham  our  anonymous  author  wrote  :  "  This,  and 
similar  contests,  do  not  assume  so  much  the  character 
of  political  as  of  personal  opposition,  for  possibly  the 
candidates  opposed  to  each  other  may  accord  in  political 
opinions,  but  in  their  persons  is  determined  the  ques- 
tion of  '  who  shall  be  the  organ  of  those  opinions '  ? " 
It  was  quite  an  exception  if  among  the  small  boroughs 
the  contests  developed  any  Platforming.  Borough- 
bridge,  in  Yorkshire,  was  one  of  the  exceptions.  Here 
a  Mr.  Lawson  contested  the  seat  in  avowed  opposition 
to  the  influence  of  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  and  he  spoke 
a  good  deal,  and  to  such  purpose,  that  he  actually 
succeeded  in  getting  a  majority  of  votes.  In  the  course 
of  one  of  his  speeches  he  graphically  describes  the  state 
of  more  boroughs  than  Boroughbridge.  He  spoke  of 
disturbing  the  tranquillity  of  the  borough :  "A  tran- 
quillity like  the  tranquillity  of  the  grave,  full  of  rotten- 
ness, if  not  of  corruption — a  tranquillity  forgetful  of  its 
own  existence,  a  dormant  apathy  of  spirit,  a  stagnant 
insensibility  to  all  vigorous  and  energetic  virtue — a 
tranquillity  not  resembling  that  of  the  calm  summer 

1  The  Late  Elections,  p.  72.  z  Ibid.  p.  117. 


CHAP,  x       CONTESTS  IN  LARGE  CONSTITUENCIES  443 

sky,  but  rather  the  gloom  of  the  dull  and  cloudy 
atmosphere,  and  which  nothing  but  a  violent  concussion 
of  the  elements  can  restore  to  its  native  and  elastic 
purity."1 

It  must  have  been  a  startling  novelty  at  Borough- 
bridge  to  hear  any  candidate  speak,  for  our  anonymous 
author  tells  us  :  "  Owing  to  the  quiet  way  in  which 
elections  had  been  conducted  there  for  some  time,  much 
in  the  same  way  as  vestry  meetings,  a  member  had  not 
thought  it  necessary  to  show  his  face  for  several 
elections.  The  two  late  members  had  never  been  near 
the  place." 

The  larger  and  the  more  popular  the  constituencies, 
the  more  use  do  we  find  made  of  the  Platform  by  the  late 
members  for  justifying  their  past  conduct ;  the  more  do 
we  find  them  and  the  new  candidates  discussing  from  the 
Platform  the  principal  political  events  or  tendencies  of  the 
time.  Thus,  at  Hereford,  where  there  were  1200  electors, 
and  where  there  had  not  been  a  contest  since  1784,  all 
the  candidates  made  speeches,  the  two  late  members  refer- 
ring to  their  past  conduct,  and  the  new  candidate  entering 
into  a  long  statement  of  his  political  views,  declaring 
that  his  political  principles  had  for  their  basis  the  most 
sincere  attachment  to  the  established  constitution  of 
our  country  in  the  Church  and  State.  At  Ipswich, 
where  there  were  over  600  electors,  one  of  the  candidates 
declared  "  that  he  should  support  Protestant  ascendency 
to  the  utmost  of  his  powers,  and  that  he  was  against 
dangerous  principles."  Speech  was,  however,  of  little 
value  here,  as  we  are  told  that  in  reality  "  the  contest 
was  more  one  in  the  amount  of  corruption  than  for 
political  principle."  At  Preston,  where  there  were  2200 
electors,  and  at  Southampton,  where  there  were  700 

1  The  Late  Elections,  p.  14. 


444         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

electors,  political  speeches  were  also  made.  At  Col- 
chester Mr.  Wildman  spoke,  saying,  "  That  he  still  re- 
mained a  strong,  zealous,  and  unchangeable  supporter  of 
the  Protestant  ascendency  both  in  Church  and  State, 
and  pledged  himself  to  oppose  the  Catholic  claims.  He 
was  in  favour  of  the  measures  of  the  present  Ministers, 
and  he  professed  his  own  personal  independence."  At 
Canterbury  there  was  a  "  spirited  "  contest,  the  candi- 
dates being  a  Mr.  Lushington  (a  Treasury  Secretary), 
Mr.  Baker,  who  had  represented  the  city  for  twenty 
years,  on  opposition  principles,  and  Lord  Clifton,  an 
Irish  peer.  The  election  is  solely  remarkable  for  a  most 
unblushing  speech  by  the  Treasury  Secretary.  He 
began  by  boasting  of  the  happy  termination  of  the  war, 
and  then  referred  to  his  having  accepted  office.  "  It  is," 
he  said,  "  an  erroneous  idea  of  some  people,  that  a 
member  holding  an  emolument  under  Government  is  not 
at  liberty  to  exercise  his  free  discretion.  .  .  .  For  my 
part,  I  am  a  strenuous  supporter  of  the  elective  franchise. 
It  is,  I  conceive,  a  sight  highly  calculated  to  impress  the 
mind  with  the  value  of  British  liberty,  to  see  the  colours 
waving  and  the  cockades  flying  in  all  directions  ;  and  I 
think  myself  justified  in  asserting,  that  I  never  stood 
for  any  reasonable  expense.  An  expensive  election  I  do 
not  conceive  a  desirable  relish  for  any  member,  but  I 
trust  I  have  always  acted  with  a  degree  of  liberality  and 
spirit,  which  will  entitle  me  to  the  respect  of  my  brother 
freemen.  ...  I  have  always  endeavoured  to  serve  my 
friends  and  constituents  to  the  best  of  my  ability, 
and  only  regret  that  applications  were  made  to  me 
which  were  not  in  my  power  to  comply  with.  I  hope  I 
shall  have  it  in  my  power  to  do  more  for  you  than  I 
have  hitherto  done."  At  Bristol,  where  there  was  a 
large  constituency,  there  was  a  good  fight,  and  much 


CHAP,  x  THE  CONTEST  AT  BRISTOL  445 

Platforming.  "The  election  for  this  city,"  says  our 
anonymous  compiler,  "though  in  its  outset  one  of  the  most 
vacillating,  presents  in  its  progress  and  termination  the 
character  of  the  best  principled  contest,  and  the  greatest 
political  victory  in  the  kingdom."  There  were  three 
candidates — Mr.  Davis,  Mr.  Protheroe,  and  Colonel 
Baillie.  The  latter  never  appeared  on  the  hustings  or 
the  Platform  at  all,  and  his  cause  was  left  to  his  friends 
to  fight.  The  others,  however,  spoke  frequently  and 
very  fully.  Davis  was  a  Tory,  and  had  represented  the 
constituency  in  the  defunct  Parliament.  At  his  nomi- 
nation he  recounted  his  work  in  Parliament  :  "  During 
the  period  in  which  I  have  represented  this  city, 
questions  of  the  most  vital  importance,  relating  both  to 
a  state  of  warfare  and  of  peace,  have  been  discussed  in 
Parliament.  My  voice  in  deciding  them  has  been  in- 
fluenced by  no  selfish  motive.  I  have  looked  only  to 
your  interests  as  involved  in  the  general  welfare  of  the 
empire  at  large.  Sometimes  I  have  been  found  opposed 
to  the  Crown,  and  at  other  times  my  vote  has  militated 
even  against  the  opinions  of  my  most  respectable  con- 
stituents. But,  gentlemen,  this  is  unavoidable,  if  your 
representative  is  to  have  an  independent  voice  in  the 
senate.  This  conduct  redounds  as  much  to  your  honour 
as  it  does  to  his  credit,  that  he  should  give  the  most 
mature  consideration  to  any  important  subject,  and  not 
decide  upon  it  but  through  the  strictest  scrutiny  of  his 
conscience  and  his  judgment."  He  had  supported  the 
vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war ;  he  had  been  on  the 
Committee  to  examine  into  the  income  and  to  modify 
and  economise  the  expenditure  of  the  State,  as  the  result 
of  which  the  expense  of  the  State  had  been  largely  re- 
trenched. He  was  opposed  to  Roman  Catholic  emanci- 
pation, and  he  was  a  strong  supporter  of  the  Established 


446         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

Church.  His  speeches  dealt  fairly  well  with  the  political 
questions  of  the  day. 

Protheroe,  who  had  also  been  a  member,  had  at  the 
previous  election  stood  on  independent  Whig  principles, 
but  had,  in  many  instances,  by  his  votes  and  speeches, 
acted  in  a  manner  directly  opposed  to  his  professions. 
He  now  made  a  long  speech  defending  himself.  He 
was  a  good  deal  "  heckled  "  as  regarded  having  voted 
for  the  Property  tax,  for  the  suspension  of  the  Habeas 
Corpus  Act,  and  for  the  Indemnity  Act,  but  still  the 
constituency  returned  both  him  and  Davis.  Altogether, 
the  account  of  this  election,  which  lasted  five  days, 
gives  one  a  favourable  impression  of  the  genuineness  of 
some  of  the  elections  in  England  at  this  time  ;  but  it  is 
to  be  remembered  that  Bristol  was  one  of  the  few  open 
constituencies  in  the  country,  and  was  certainly  one  of 
the  most  intelligent. 

The  metropolis  was,  as  usual,  the  scene  of  much 
political  speaking,  and  here  the  Platform  seemed  to  be 
of  some  real  use.  The  constituencies  were  large  and 
independent,  and  the  electors  keen  and  energetic. 
Thomas  Attwood,  of  Birmingham,  who  some  twelve  or 
thirteen  years  later  was  to  be  one  of  the  most  conspicuous 
men  in  England  as  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Reform 
agitation,  does  not,  however,  give  a  very  favourable 
description  of  the  London  electorate  at  this  time.  In  a 
letter  to  his  wife,  written  on  the  30th  June  1818  in 
London,  he  said  :  "  The  election  makes  great  disturb- 
ances here.  The  poor  wretches  who  clamour  for  Burdett 
and  Liberty,  meaning  Blood  and  Anarchy,  are  far  worse 
in  ignorance  and  stupidity  than  our  Birmingham  mobs. 
But  they  have  got  rascals  among  them  who  excite  them 
almost  to  madness.  It  is  the  greatest  nonsense  in  the 
world  to  attempt  to  reason  with  them.  They  have 


CHAP,  x  CONTESTED  COUNTY  ELECTIONS  447 

their  opinions  because  they  are  told  so.  ...  Reason 
has  nothing  at  all  to  do  with  their  conduct.  It  is  all  a 
mere  question  of  passion,  and  therefore  such  creatures 
ought  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  politics." l 

The  elections  in  London  City,  Westminster,  and 
Southwark,  were  as  keenly  contested  as  any  one  could 
wish,  and  there  was  a  great  deal  of  speaking.  For  the 
representation  of  the  city  of  London,  consisting  of  four 
seats,  there  were  six  candidates,  and  as  the  election 
lasted  many  days,  there  were  no  end  of  meetings,  and 
every  day  addresses  were  delivered  by  nearly  all  the 
candidates  from  the  hustings. 

To  turn,  however,  from  borough  elections  to  county 
elections.  Here  contests  were  fairly  numerous,  con- 
sidering the  enormous  expense  of  a  county  contest  at 
this  period ;  and  at  all  of  them  we  find  that  the  Plat- 
form was  very  largely  employed,  and  that  many  regular 
political  speeches  were  made.  Thus  in  Berkshire  all  the 
candidates  spoke,  and  one  of  them,  Mr.  Charles  Dundas, 
declared  "  That  during  the  whole  of  his  Parliamentary 
career  he  had  been  actuated  by  the  purest  motives  for 
the  public  good,  having  never  sought  for  personal 
aggrandisement,  or  received  one  shilling  of  Government 
money.  He  challenged  the  most  jealous  inquiry  into 
his  public  conduct,  and  was  ready  to  answer  any  ques- 
tion that  any  gentleman  might  think  proper  to  put  to 
him."  Another  of  the  candidates  based  his  claims  on 
the  grounds  that  "  He  had  uniformly  upheld  the  cause 
of  the  people,  had  voted  for  economy  and  retrenchment, 
and  was  an  advocate  for  a  mild,  temperate,  and  practic- 
able reform  in  the  House  of  Commons,  though  he  would 
not  support,  at  the  hazard  of  universal  anarchy,  the 

1  See  Life  of  Thomas  Attwood,  by  C.       for  private  circulation  only,  but  is  to 
M.  Wakefield.     The  book  was  printed       be  found  in  the  British  Museum. 


448         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"  rash  schemes  and  pernicious  theories  of  visionary  and 
violent  innovators." 

In  Westmoreland  there  was  a  contest,  "  to  which  the 
attention  of  the  whole  kingdom  was  directed  through 
means  of  the  Press."  Brougham  contested  a  seat 
against  the  Lowther  interest,  and  wherever  he  was 
there  was  sure  to  be  plenty  of  Platforming.  He  spoke 
several  times  a  day  for  four  days ;  most  of  his  speeches, 
however,  being  devoted  more  to  local  electioneering 
points  than  to  matters  of  wider  interest.  But  all  in 
vain  was  all  his  speaking.  Great  county  interests  were 
then  almost  all-powerful.  Even  Brougham  was  unable 
to  overthrow  them  in  this  instance,  though,  as  he  told 
his  supporters,  he  "kindled  a  flame  that  would  burst 
from  his  ashes  to  consume  their  oppressors  and  light 
them  to  triumph." 

In  Wiltshire  there  was  also  a  contest.  "  We  do  not 
find  much  conflict  of  political  feeling  in  the  progress  of 
the  contest ;  the  question  was  not,  whose  political  feel- 
ings best  suit  the  county,  but  whether  certain  family 
connections  are  to  be  perpetuated  in  it.  Both  during 
the  canvass  and  the  progress  of  the  poll  the  county  was 
kept  in  a  state  of  great  irritation.  .  .  .  Mr.  Bennett 
could  not  obtain  a  hearing  during  the  poll,  whose  con- 
tinuance was  marked  by  daily  personal  altercations 
between  the  partisans  of  the  rival  candidates.  Mr. 
Wellesley  sometimes  obtained  a  hearing  (it  depended 
upon  the  possession  of  the  hustings)  when  employed  in 
refuting  the  idea  of  the  county  being  carried  by  his 
long  purse." 

In  Somersetshire  there  was  also  a  contest  which  lasted 
for  four  days.  On  the  day  of  the  nomination  there  was 
"  one  of  the  largest  assemblages  of  persons  ever  known 
in  the  city  of  Wells,"  and  there  was  much  speaking. 


CHAP,  x  CONTESTED  COUNTY  ELECTIONS  449 

In  Kent,  at  the  contest,  numerous  political  speeches 
were  made,  including  references  to  Catholic  claims  and 
Parliamentary  reform,  and  there  was  a  good  deal  of 
"  heckling,"  so  much  so  that  one  of  the  candidates 
wanted  to  have  all  the  questions  blended  together,  "  so 
that  he  might  know  when  he  was  done  being  cate- 
chised." His  principal  questioner  retorted  that  he  had 
no  more  questions  to  ask,  but  he  conceived  candidates 
came  for  the  purpose  of  being  catechised. 

In  Devon  there  was  a  contest  which  lasted  six  days, 
all  the  candidates  speaking  every  evening  after  the 
close  of  the  day's  polling ;  but  it  was  only  at  the  end 
of  the  second  day's  election  apparently  that  there  was 
any  reference  to  politics.  Lord  Ebrington  having  then 
declared,  "If  it  be  a  crime  to  oppose  the  measures  of 
Ministers  who  have  done  more  than  any  other  to  ruin 
the  country,  I  plead  guilty  to  the  cause."  Sir  T. 
Acland  complainingly  remarked,  "  I  suppose  I  must 
follow  the  noble  lord's  example,  and  have  a  word  or  two 
of  politics."  At  the  end  of  the  sixth  day  Sir  T.  Acland 
retired,  and  from  the  speech  he  then  delivered  he  ap- 
peared to  be  sensible  of  several  causes  of  discontent  on 
the  part  of  his  late  constituents  which  led  to  his  defeat. 

In  Lincolnshire  the  contest  may  be  fairly  said  to 
have  been  one  of  political  opinions,  and  "  was  conducted 
throughout  with  a  determined  spirit,  but  in  a  most 
gentlemanly  and  courteous  manner."  The  speeches 
were  regular  political  ones,  the  respective  candidates 
basing  their  claims  for  support  on  concurrence  in  the 
ministerial  policy  and  measures,  or  in  condemnation  of 
them. 

It  is  clear  from  these  examples,  that  in  contested 
county  elections  the  Platform  was  very  largely  used  ; 
but  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  at  this  period  the 


450         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

polling  took  place  altogether  at  the  county  town,  and, 
therefore,  its  use  was  thus  confined  to  the  one  spot. 

As  regards  the  county  elections,  however,  its  use 
was  not  confined  to  those  counties  where  contested 
elections  were  fought ;  but  in  several  counties,  where 
there  was  no  contest,  the  candidates  made  regular 
political  speeches  at  the  time  of  the  nomination,  though 
this,  however,  was  but  a  small  matter  in  comparison 
with  a  prolonged  contest. 

Thus,  at  Norfolk,  Mr.  Coke  made  a  vehement 
political  speech  on  the  iniquities  of  Ministers,  and  in 
Northamptonshire,  Oxfordshire,  Gloucestershire,  and 
other  counties  speeches,  of  a  sort,  were  made.  This 
was  the  case  also  in  some  of  the  borough  elections  where 
there  was  no  contest. 

Thus  at  Newcastle-upon-Tyne  one  of  the  candidates 
who  had  been  the  member  made  a  good  political  speech  ; 
he  referred  to  his  conduct  in  Parliament  as  the  plea  on 
which  he  grounded  his  claim  to  their  support,  he  recalled 
to  them  his  opposition  to  the  suspension  of  the  Habeas 
Corpus  Act,  and  to  the  Indemnity  Act,  and  he  declared 
himself  in  favour  of  Parliamentary  reform,  though  averse 
to  annual  Parliaments  and  universal  suffrage. 

As  another  illustration  I  may  mention  the  case  of 
Shrewsbury,  though  the  candidate's  speech  was  a  short 
one.  "  Gentlemen — My  political  conduct  is  before  you. 
I  have  supported  the  Administration  when  I  approved 
of  their  measures,  and  I  have  decidedly  opposed  them 
when  I  thought  them  wrong.  I  briefly  promise  to  you, 
that  the  same  course  I  shall  continue  to  pursue,  if  you 
do  me  the  honour  to  re-elect  me." 

Reviewing  the  proceedings  at  this  general  election 
not  merely  in  contested  counties  and  boroughs,  but  in 
the  non- contested  also,  it  is,  I  think,  evident  that 


CHAP,  x  SCOTLAND'S  REPRESENTATION  451 

considerable  use  was  made  of  the  Platform  in  England 
by  the  candidates.  It  must,  however,  be  also  remarked 
that  with  one  or  two  notable  exceptions,  the  speeches 
were  not  of  a  high  order,  nor,  if  we  omit  the  cases  of 
the  larger  constituencies,  was  there  much  of  argumenta- 
tive style  about  them.  I  have  said  "  in  England " 
because,  in  Scotland,  the  electoral  Platform,  even,  had 
no  existence  at  all.  There  were  over  2,000,000 
inhabitants  in  Scotland,  and  there  were  about  2500 
electors.  In  the  counties  the  electors  were  very  few  in 
number,  but  they  elected  their  members.  In  the 
boroughs  they  did  not  even  do  that.  The  towns 
(except  Edinburgh)  were  grouped  into  districts  con- 
sisting of  four  or  five  towns,  and  each  district  was 
allowed  one  member.  The  corporation  of  each  of  the 
towns  in  the  district  elected  a  single  delegate,  and  the 
four  or  five  delegates  thus  elected  met  together,  and 
elected  the  member.  As  an  illustration  of  the  working 
of  the  system  the  case  of  Glasgow  may  be  cited. 
Though  one  of  the  most  opulent  cities  of  the  kingdom, 
with  a  population  of  some  80,000,  instead  of  electing  a 
member,  it  only  elected  a  delegate,  and  this  delegate 
was  chosen,  not  by  the  people  of  Glasgow,  but  by  the 
Corporation  of  thirty-two  persons,  who  were  self-elected. 
This  delegate  had  only  one  voice  of  four  in  the  choice 
of  the  member  of  Parliament,  in  common  with  the 
delegates  of  three  little  towns,  the  inhabitants  of  which 
were  not  more  than  2000. 

Under  this  condition  of  things  evidently  there  was 
no  scope  for  the  electoral  Platform  in  Scotland.  The 
so-called  contests  were  mere  farces,  and  though  a  few 
candidates  made  speeches,  their  hearers  were  -few,  nor 
would  any  amount  of  speechifying  have  influenced  the 
select  number  of  electors. 


452         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

In  England,  as  we  have  seen,  the  state  of  representa- 
tion was  not  so  bad  as  this,  but  though  the  Platform 
had  a  certain  scope  in  England,  and  was  used  to  a 
considerable  extent  at  election  time,  still  there  were 
circumstances  even  there  which  detracted  very  much 
from  its  effectiveness.  These  circumstances  were  the 
manner  in  which  elections  were  conducted. 

Cobbett,  much  as  he  was  in  favour  of  general 
elections,  described  them  as  "  scenes  of  notorious  bribery 
and  corruption,"  and  denounced  the  "  meanness,  lying, 
drunkenness,  violence,  fraud,  and  false-swearing,  which 
spread  themselves  over  the  country  at  every  general 
election."1  And  Bamford  wrote  even  more  strongly 
about  them.  He  said  :  "  They  are  generally  conducted 
in  a  manner  which  is  disgraceful  to  civilised  society. 
The  proceedings  of  one  of  these  good  old  English 
events  is  more  like  'hell  broke  -loose'  than  anything 
human.  Behold  the  banners,  hear  the  music — mere  glare 
and  noise ;  the  speakers — one  side  yelled  dumb,  the  other 
drummed  deaf — good  men  bullied  by  ruffians ;  dema- 
gogues cheered  ;  scurrility  applauded  ;  fraud  devised  and 
practised;  truth  suppressed;  falsehood  blazoned ;  courage 
threatened ;  cowardice  rewarded ;  vanity  flattered ; 
cupidity  bribed ;  sobriety  scoffed ;  gluttony  indulged ; 
conscience  hushed  ;  honour  abandoned  ;  wrong  triumph- 
ant;  right  abashed  and  condemned."' 

In  many  places  too  there  was  considerable  rioting, 
which  was  manifestly  against  the  use  of  the  Platform. 
"  The  elections  are  carried  on  with  great  violence,"3  wrote 
Greville. 

At  Colchester  the  hustings  was  stormed,  and  "  In  about 
five  minutes  the  whole  fabric  was  razed  to  the  ground." 

1  Political  Register,  1816,  vol.  xxxi.  2  Bamford,  vol.  i.  p.  13. 

p.  339.  3  The  Grcville  Memoirs,  vol.  i.  p.  3. 


CHAP,  x  THE  ELECTION  PLATFORM  453 

At  Northampton  each  party  attacked  the  headquarters 
of  their  opponents,  and  the  Riot  Act  was  read.  At 
Southampton,  where  the  contest  lasted  six  days,  "  The 
election  was  conducted,  so  far  as  the  mob  was  concerned, 
in  a  most  riotous  and  disgraceful  manner."  At  the 
Middlesex  election  one  of  the  candidates  spoke  "  in 
intervals  of  casual  silence." 

Now,  if  we  take  this  general  election  as  fairly  typical 
of  others  about  this  period,  and  I  think  it  may  be  so 
taken,  the  truth  appears  to  be,  that  the  real  effect  of  the 
Platform  at  a  general  election  lay  not  so  much  in  changing 
opinions  and  getting  votes  at  the  time,  as  in  the  great 
impulse  which  it  gave  to  popular  feeling. 

Canning  declared  at  the  Liverpool  election  that 
"  The  spirit  of  popular  elections  is  the  spirit  which  keeps 
alive  the  frame  of  the  Constitution,"  l  and  a  writer  in 
the  Edinburgh  Review 2  of  this  same  year  has  enlarged 
more  fully  on  this  text.  He  said :  "  Meetings  for 
elections  are  by  far  the  safest  and  most  effective  of  all 
popular  assemblies.  They  are  brought  together  by  the 
Constitution  ;  they  have  a  legal  character  ;  they  display 
the  ensigns  of  public  authority ;  they  assemble  men  of 
all  ranks  and  opinions  ;  and,  in  them,  the  people  publicly 
and  conspicuously  bestow  some  of  the  highest  prizes 
pursued  by  a  generous  ambition.  Hence  they  derive  a 
consequence,  and  give  a  sense  of  self-importance  to 
their  humblest  members,  which  would  be  vainly  sought 
for  in  spontaneous  meetings.  They  lend  a  part  of  their 
own  seriousness  and  dignity  to  other  meetings  occasioned 
by  the  election,  and  even  to  those  which  at  other  times 
are  really,  or  even  nominally,  composed  of  electors. 

"  In   elections  political  principles  cease  to   be  mere 

1  Canning's  Speeches,  p.  210.  197,  "Universal  Suffrage,"  December 

2  Edinburgh  Review,  vol.   xxxi.    p.       1818,  by  Sir  James  Mackintosh. 


454         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"  abstractions.  They  are  embodied  in  individuals  ;  and 
the  cold  conviction  of  a  truth,  or  the  languid  approba- 
tion of  a  measure,  is  animated  by  attachment  for  leaders, 
and  hostility  to  adversaries.  Every  political  passion  is 
warmed  in  the  contest.  Even  the  outward  circumstances 
of  the  scene  strike  the  imagination,  and  affect  the  feel- 
ings. The  recital  of  them  daily  spreads  enthusiasm  over 
a  country.  The  various  fortunes  of  the  combat  excite 
anxiety  and  agitation  on  all  sides,  and  an  opportunity  is 
offered  of  discussing  almost  every  political  question, 
under  circumstances  where  the  hearts  of  hearers  and 
readers  take  part  in  the  argument ;  and  the  issue  of  a 
controversy  is  regarded  by  the  nation  with  some  degree 
of  the  same  solicitude  as  the  event  of  a  battle.  In  this 
manner  is  formed  democratical  ascendency,  which  is 
most  perfect  when  the  greatest  numbers  of  independent 
judgments  influence  the  measures  of  Government. 
Reading  may,  indeed,  increase  the  number  and  intelli- 
gence of  those  whose  sentiments  compose  public  opinion, 
but  numerous  assemblies,  and  consequently  popular 
elections,  can  alone  generate  the  courage  and  zeal  which 
form  so  large  a  portion  of  its  power." 

There  remains  for  our  consideration  the  third  and 
most  important  aspect  of  the  Platform  at  this  general 
election — namely,  How  far  did  the  electors  use  it  as  a 
means  for  exercising  a  control  over  their  representatives, 
and  exacting  pledges  from  them  ? 

The  power  of  the  Platform,  viewed  as  a  great  politi- 
cal institution,  consists,  as  has  already  been  pointed  out, 
in  the  amount  of  its  control  over  Parliament,  exercised 
through  its  control  over  the  individual  representatives. 
What  control  did  it  exercise  in  this  way  at  this  election  ? 
Was  that  control  showing  signs  of  increasing  ?  And  what 
were  the  views  expressed  by  the  candidates  on  the  subject? 


CHAP,  x       INDEPENDENCE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  455 

These  were  the  really  crucial  points  of  the  whole 
matter.  In  an  unreformed  Parliament,  such  as  was 
this  Parliament  of  1818,  the  question  could  only  arise 
in  a  somewhat  limited  degree,  for  it  did  not  touch  the 
large  number  of  members  returned  for  rotten  boroughs, 
with  practically  no  electorate.  I  have  already  adverted 
to  the  views  held  at  different  times  previous  to  this,  as 
to  the  relation  of  a  representative  to  his  constituents. 
Canning,  six  years  previous  to  this  election,  at  the  close 
of  the  Liverpool  Election  of  1812,  thus  laid  down  his 
views  on  the  subject,  which  were,  I  think,  a  long  way 
in  advance,  in  a  democratic  direction,  of  those  held  by 
Burke  and  Wilberforce.  He  said  : l  "  Gentlemen,  if 
I  did  not  retain  the  independence  of  my  own  judg- 
ment in  the  House  of  Commons,  I  should  be  but  an 
unworthy  representative  of  the  independent  and  enlight- 
ened community  which  sends  me  thither.  It  may 
happen  that  your  judgment  may  occasionally  come  in 
conflict  with  my  own.  Men  of  independent  minds  may 
honestly  differ  on  subjects  which  admit  of  a  variety  of 
views.  In  all  such  cases  I  promise  you,  not  indeed 
wholly  to  submit  my  judgment  to  yours — you  would 
despise  me  if  I  made  so  extravagant  a  profession, — but  I 
promise  you  that  any  difference  of  opinion  between  us 
will  always  lead  me  to  distrust  my  own  views,  carefully 
to  examine,  and,  if  erroneous,  frankly  to  correct  them. 

"  Gentlemen,  our  judgments  may  clash,  but  our 
interests  never ;  no  interests  of  mine  shall  ever  come  in 
competition  with  yours.  I  promise  you  further  that, 
hoping  as  I  earnestly  do  that  the  connection,  of  which 
the  foundation  is  this  day  auspiciously  laid,  may  last 
to  the  end  of  my  political  life ;  yet  if,  unfortunately, 

1  See  Speeches  of  the  RigM  Hon.  George  Canning,  edited  by  Thomas  Kaye 
(1825),  p.  41. 


456         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"  occasions  should  occur  (I  cannot  foresee  or  imagine 
any  such)  on  which  there  should  arise  between  us,  on 
points  of  serious  importance,  a  radical  and  irreconcilable 
difference  of  opinion,  I  will  not  abuse  my  trust,  but  will 
give  you  the  earliest  opportunity  of  recalling  or  recon- 
sidering your  delegation  of  it." 

This  was  a  most  important  pronouncement,  very 
different  from  anything  hitherto  avowed  by  any  states- 
man of  first  rank.  The  subject  thus  treated  by  Canning 
cropped  up  in  Parliament  in  1816. 

Lord  Milton  said  :  "If  gentlemen  looked  merely  to 
their  own  constituents,  and  acted  according  to  their 
opinions,  then  indeed  they  became  merely  delegates. 
But  the  constitutional  principle  was  this — that  the 
House  of  Commons  at  large  were  to  act  with  the  people 
at  large."1 

Sir  J.  Newport  suggested  the  expediency  of  mem- 
bers "paying  obedience  to  the  wishes  of  their  con- 
stituents, and  if  such  an  obedience  could  not  be 
observed,  with  due  deference  to  their  own  feelings,  to 
surrender  the  trust  into  other  hands."  And  Mr. 
Rose  said :  "  He  would  be  glad  to  know  how  many 
seats  would  have  been  resigned,  on  the  question 
of  the  Corn  Bill,  if  that  principle  had  been  followed. 
At  that  time  fifty  Petitions  were  presented  in  one 
evening  against  the  proposed  Bill,  which  was,  notwith- 
standing, carried  into  effect." 

At  this  General  Election  of  1818  many  of  the  candi- 
dates publicly  acknowledged  their  responsibility  to  their 
constituents  for  an  account  of  their  stewardship,  and 
based  their  claims  for  re-election  on  their  conduct  in 
the  past. 

For   instance,   Lord   Nugent,    who   was   contesting 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xxxiii.  p.  466. 


CHAP,  x  INDEPENDENT  REPRESENTATIVES  457 

Aylesbury,  and  who  had  been  member  for  that  con- 
stituency, said  :  "  I  now  call  on  any  and  every  man, 
who  may  think  he  has  just  cause  to  complain  of  my 
conduct  while  I  was  his  representative,  to  state  his 
complaints  publicly,  and  to  meet  me  here  fairly,  and  in 
the  face  of  day,  with  all  he  feels  towards  me  of  objec- 
tion or  reproach,  I  am  here  prepared,  not  less  in 
inclination  than  in  duty,  to  meet  and  to  answer  him." 

Many  of  the  candidates  condescended  to  give  some 
promises,  or  rather  some  general  statement  of  their 
views.  Several  of  them  avowed  their  intention  to  sup- 
port the  existing  Constitution  in  Church  and  State,  a 
few  of  them  referred  to  the  questions  of  Parliamentary 
reform  and  Catholic  emancipation,  but  most  of  the 
speeches  were  very  vague  and  wordy. 

As  a  candidate  at  one  of  the  elections  very  truly 
remarked  :  "I  am  well  aware  that  nothing  can  be  more 
idle  than  the  professions  which  are  generally  made  by 
those  who  stand  in  the  situation  you  now  see  me."  And 
candidates  had  an  evident  aversion  to  pledging  them- 
selves towards  any  liberal  measures  or  policy. 

Mr.  Bennett,  at  Shrewsbury,  was  an  exception.  He 
had  been  member,  and  was  re-elected,  and  in  his  final 
speech  he  said  :  "I  here  pledge  myself  to  devote  my 
life  to  your  service.  As  I  have  not  made  you  hitherto 
any  promise  which  I  have  broken,  I  shall  act  to  the 
best  of  my  judgment,  except  when  I  am  instructed  by 
you,  and  in  those  cases  in  which  I  shall  receive  your 
instructions,  I  am  resolved  to  do  one  of  two  things— 
either  to  obey  your  voice,  or  if  I  should  unfortunately 
differ  from  you  in  opinion,  surrender  into  your  hands 
the  trust  you  have  reposed  in  me." 

This  was  the  most  extreme  case.  Most  of  the  can- 
didates took  a  highly  independent  tone.  "  I  accepted 


458         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  11 

"  your  invitation,"  said,  or  rather  wrote,  one,  "  upon 
principles  of  perfect  independence."  "  I  will  not  go 
into  Parliament  shackled,"  wrote  another. 

At  Aylesbury  Lord  Nugent,  speaking  on  the  subject 
of  a  previous  pledge  being  given  by  a  candidate,  de- 
clared :  "  Chosen  or  rejected,  I  will  retain  to  myself, 
unfettered  and  unbiassed,  the  exercise  of  my  own  dis- 
cretion, according  to  my  judgment,  and  according  to 
my  conscience." 

At  Bristol  Protheroe,  who  had  been  in  Parliament, 
said  he  "  had  been  sent  to  Parliament  as  an  independent 
man,  who  told  you  beforehand  that  he  should  be  proud 
to  have  his  judgment  enlightened  by  yours  upon  all 
subjects,  but  that  upon  public  questions  he  could 
acknowledge  no  direction  but  his  own  conscience.  It 
is  not  a  delegate,  gentlemen,  but  a  representative,  that 
you  send  to  Parliament." 

In  Gloucestershire  Sir  W.  Guise  said :  "  He  should 
always  feel  pleasure  in  attending  to  the  wishes  of  the 
freeholders  of  this  great  manufacturing  county,  at  the 
same  time  reserving  to  himself  the  right  of  exercising 
his  own  judgment  in  the  consideration  of  all  subjects  of 
importance." 

In  Kent  Sir  E.  Knatchbull,  when  questioned  about 
Parliamentary  reform,  said  :  "I  shall  be  in  my  place, 
and  will  attend  to  the  question,  and  whatever  may  be 
my  honest  opinion  upon  it,  I  will  give  my  vote  accord- 
ingly. ...  If  I  were  to  pledge  myself  to  one  thing 
or  the  other,  I  should  pledge  myself  not  to  have  the 
liberty  of  giving  my  vote  according  to  my  conscience, 
and  nothing  on  earth  shall  ever  deter  me  from  giving 
my  vote  agreeably  to  the  dictates  of  my  honest 
conscience." 

In   Somersetshire   Colonel  G.  Langton  said :  "  The 


CHAP,  x       INDEPENDENCE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  459 

representation  of  this  county  is  the  highest  end  and 
aim  of  my  ambition,  but  even  this  honour  may  be 
purchased  too  dearly  by  the  loss  of  integrity.  I  there- 
fore will  never  accept  it,  but  as  its  free  and  unrestrained 
representative." 

Even  the  advanced  Liberals  of  the  time  showed  a  dis- 
like of  restraint  on  their  freedom  in  Parliament.  Thus 
Waithman,  a  Radical,  who  stood  for  the  city  of  London, 
said  :  "  As  to  the  doctrine  of  instructions  he  would  not 
push  it  too  far ;  he  would  not  be  for  fettering  repre- 
sentatives " ;  but  in  returning  thanks  for  his  election, 
he  said,  "  It  would  be  his  endeavour  to  represent  their 
opinions  and  feelings,  to  which  he  should  always 
consider  himself  bound  to  conform  when  they  were 
expressed  by  them  legally  assembled  for  that  purpose."1 

Joseph  Hume's  views  on  the  subject  are  also  in- 
teresting, though  he  represented  one  of  those  Scotch 
boroughs,  as  regarded  which  the  whole  system 
of  election  and  representation  was  a  farce.  He 
said :  "  Anxious  as  he  should  always  be  to  attend  to 
the  instructions  and  representations  of  his  constituents, 
he  took  this  opportunity  to  repeat,  that  he  should  in  no 
instance  consider  himself  bound  to  vote  as  they  wished, 
unless  his  own  conviction  went  with  them.  It  often 
happened  that  measures  of  a  public  nature,  when  viewed 
with  the  eye  of  limited  information,  which  must  of 

1  Speaking  in  1806,  Waithman  had  of  his   constituents  ;   and  when  their 

said:  "I  never  was  so  silly  on   any  opinions  are  fully,  fairly,  and  distinctly 

occasion  as   to   maintain  that   it  was  expressed,  they  ought  implicitly  to  be 

the  duty  of  the  representative  on  every  obeyed.      In  ordinary  cases  represen- 

occasion  to  come  and  ask  for  instruc-  tatives  are  to  be  guided  in  their  vote 

tions    from    his    constituents.      This  by   their    feelings.      On    such    grand 

would  indeed  be  ridiculous.     What  I  occasions  as  those  I  have  alluded  to, 

shall  ever  maintain   is   this — that  on  I   shall  ever  maintain   that  they  are 

great,     important,    leading    constitu-  peremptorily  bound  to  act  in  obedience 

tional  questions,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  to  those  from  whom  they  derive  their 

representative   to  listen  to   the   voice  right  to  give  any  voice  in  Parliament." 


460         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"'  necessity  be  often  the  case  in  parts  distant  from  the 
metropolis,  appeared  very  different  to  those  whose 
superior  means  of  information  and  experience  in  the 
capital  extend  their  views.  Such  might  be  the  case 
with  his  constituents  and  him.  .  .  .  He  could  assure 
them  he  never  would  support  any  measure  in  the  House 
of  Commons  that  he  could  not  defend  before  them  here." 

These  quotations  from  the  speeches  of  candidates  at 
this  election,  most  of  whom  were  successful  in  their  can- 
didature, convey  to  us  a  sufficiently  clear  idea  as  to  the 
amount  of  independence  which  candidates  thought  they 
might  lay  claim  to  at  this  period  without  endangering 
their  chances  of  success.  But  there  were  unpleasant 
signs  and  portents  in  the  political  sky  that  such  inde- 
pendence, however  much  it  might  be  claimed,  would 
not  for  ever  be  conceded. 

Thus,  in  London  city,  Sir  William  Curtis  (who  had 
already  served  in  six  Parliaments  as  a  representative  of 
the  city)  said  :  "  He  should  say  one  word  on  the  doc- 
trine of  the  right  of  constituents  to  instruct  their  repre- 
sentatives. Whenever  the  rights  of  the  citv  of  London 

o  v 

came  under  the  consideration  of  Parliament,  he  should 
constantly  stand  up  for  them,  and  would  only  on  such 
occasions  attend  strictly  to  the  wishes  of  the  Livery. 
On  questions,  however,  which  related  to  the  interests  of 
the  nation  at  large,  he  claimed  the  right  of  judging  for 
himself."  l  He  was  not  re-elected. 

In  Sussex  one  of  the  previous  members  was  opposed 
because  he  was  not  thought  a  fit  person  to  represent 
the  county,  as  he  had  not  attended  to  his  Parliamentary 
duties ;  and  in  South wark  one  of  the  members  was  un- 
seated because  he  had  voted  contrary  to  the  opinions 
and  hostile  to  the  interests  of  the  people. 

1  See  The  Examiner,  1818,  pp.  386,  407. 


CHAP,  x  THE  PLATFORM  AT  ELECTIONS  461 

From  a  consideration  of  the  details  of  this  general 
election  we  may,  I  think,  form  certain  reliable  conclu- 
sions as  to  the  position  of  the  Platform  at  all  general 
elections  about  this  period.  Viewing,  then,  the  Plat- 
form as  used  by  Ministers,  or  by  candidates  in  counties 
or  boroughs  at  contested  or  uncontested  elections,  one 
must  acknowledge  that  one  is  not  impressed  with  the 
amount  of  power  it  possessed.  Certainly  it  could  not 
be  in  any  way  yet  regarded  as  an  instrument  of  real 
political  force  in  the  nation.  Ministers  practically 
ignored  it.  What  was  termed  an  appeal  to  the  elec- 
torate was  in  reality  only  an  appeal  to  those  who 
controlled  the  constituencies,  to  the  great  families  of 
influence  or  faction  in  London,  to  the  patrons  of  county 
constituencies,  and  to  the  owners  of  boroughs  or  borough- 
mongers.  To  keep  these  persons  in  perpetual  leading- 
strings  was  the  abiding  aim  and  policy  of  Government, 
and  not  the  winning  of  popular  applause  and  esteem  by 
a  regard  to  the  interests  of  the  people. 

A  majority  of  these  persons  won  over,  either  from 
considerations  of  self-interest,  or  by  promises,  or  in- 
trigues, or  judiciously  bestowed  patronage,  the  result 
of  the  election  was  a  foregone  conclusion.  From  London 
issued  forth  the  nominees  of  Ministers,  and  their  friends 
and  followers,  to  go  through  the  form  of  election. 

There  was  no  need,  therefore,  for  Ministers  to  make 
any  appeal  to  the  country  from  the  Platform,  to  present 
any  definite  policy  to  the  electorate.  The  whole  thing 
was  manipulated  and  arranged  by  them  long  previous 
to  the  arbitrament  of  the  poll.  Thus  it  resulted  that, 
in  a  large  number  of  constituencies,  especially  rotten 
ones,  the  Platform  had  no  existence,  and  that  in  many 
others  the  form  only  of  election,  and  not  the  substance, 
was  to  be  found. 


462         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

Again,  in  several  of  the  constituencies  where  the 
Platform  was  a  good  deal  in  evidence,  its  influence  was 
entirely  subordinate  to  wholesale  bribery  and  corrup- 
tion. 

In  some  of  the  counties,  however,  where  one  great 
family  interest  would  be  sometimes  pitted  against 
another,  it  was  often  of  great  service  ;  but  it  was  only 
in  the  few  large  civic  constituencies,  which  were  too 
large  to  be  bribed,  or  too  numerous  to  be  intimidated, 
that  the  Platform  was  a  real  genuine  power.  These 
constituencies,  however,  were  so  few,  that  though  the 
Platform  was  a  power  in  them,  it  was  not  a  power  in  the 
State. 

Much  of  the  cause  of  this  weakness  of  the  elec- 
toral Platform  was  due  to  the  limited  number  of  the 
electorate.  There  were  not  enough  electors  to  make 
the  expression  of  their  opinion  really  formidable  to  their 
rulers,  for  the  great  bulk  of  the  mass  of  the  people  was 
wholly  outside  the  electorate.  Something  of  the  weak- 
ness too  was  the  result  of  the  difficulty  of  communica- 
tion still  existing,  the  difficulty  of  collecting  the  people 
together  for  political  purposes. 

The  Platform  as  a  political  power  at  general  election 
time  was,  in  fact,  not  much  more  than  in  its  infancy, 
but  it  was  the  infancy  of  a  Hercules,  with  vast  promise 
of  development.  It  might  be  weak  now,  but  the  in- 
grained spirit  of  liberty  and  self-government  in  the 
race  was  soon  to  burst  forth  with  irresistible  strength 
into  sovereign  power,  and  the  electoral  Platform  was 
to  be  the  means  for  making  the  popular  will  supreme 
in  the  government  of  the  country. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE   THIRD   SUPPRESSION   OF   THE   PLATFORM 

THE  new  Parliament  met  on  the  14th  of  January  1819, 
little  changed  in  composition  from  that  which  preceded 
it.  The  popular  party  had  gained  slightly.  It  was 
computed,  at  the  time,  that  the  ranks  of  the  regular 
opposition,  all  sections  included,  had  been  increased  by 
some  30  votes  or  so,  and  Tierney,  speaking  soon 
after  the  meeting  of  Parliament,  bore  testimony  to  a 
change  not  recorded  in  mere  figures.  "  He  now  spoke," 
he  said,  "in  a  House  to  which  had  been  returned  a 
larger  proportion  of  men  connected  with  no  party  than 
he  ever  remembered  before.  They  were  of  a  description 
of  persons  who  professed  that  they  would  vote  without 
reference  to  either  side  of  the  House ;  and  that  they 
would  weigh  measures  and  not  men."  «But  this,  in  those 
times  of  ministerial  temptation,  was  rather  an  unstable 
class  of  men,  very  open  to  ministerial  approaches,  and 
not  to  be  relied  on  by  the  people. 

Still,  the  general  results  of  the  elections  and,  more 
particularly,  the  popular  victories  in  London  city,  and 
a  few  other  places,  afforded  some  encouragement  to  the 
popular  party. 

The  Seditious  Meetings  Act,  or  at  least  that  portion 
of  it  which  related  to  seditious  meetings,  and  debating 


464         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

societies,  had  expired  in  the  previous  July.  Whether  the 
general  election  had  somewhat  exhausted  the  energies  of 
the  people,  or  whether  they  were  waiting  to  see  if  the 
new  House  of  Commons  would  be  more  disposed  than 
the  last  towards  considering  their  wants,  and  alleviat- 
ing some  of  the  hardness  of  their  circumstances,  the 
Platform  had  been  quiescent  during  the  autumn  of 
1818,  and,  with  one  exception,  remained  so  during  all 
the  earlier  part  of  the  session  of  1819.  The  exception 
was  a  meeting  at  Manchester  on  the  18th  of  January, 
which  was  got  up  by  the  reformers  of  that  town,  and 
which  Hunt  was  invited  to  attend.  On  his  arrival  at 
Ardwick,  near  Manchester,  he  was  met  by  a  deputation 
from  the  town,  and  a  great  crowd  of  people  who  unyoked 
his  horses,  and  dragged  his  carriage  into  the  town.  A 
procession  accompanying  him  with  banners  bearing 
mottoes—"  Rights  of  Man,"  "  Universal  Suffrage,"  "  No 
Corn  Laws." 

About  half-past  eleven  o'clock  the  crowd  reached  St. 
Peter's  Field.  Hunt l  ascended  the  Platform  and  made  a 
speech.  He  alluded  to  the  Boroughreeve  having  refused 
to  call  the  meeting,  and  remarked  that  they  were  called 
together  as  legally  and  constitutionally  as  if  the 
municipal  authorities  had  been  present.  "  Some  gentle- 
men had  proposed  a  Petition,  a  Petition  to  that  House 
of  Commons,  which,  when  last  assembled,  had  kicked 
their  prayers  and  petitions  out  of  doors.  Would  they 
submit  again  to  petition  that  House  ?  or  would  they 
come  forward  as  men,  as  Englishmen,  and  demand  their 
rights  ? "  Here  the  word  "  Remonstrate "  from  the 
assembled  thousands  drowned  the  voice  of  the  speaker, 
and  it  was  agreed  that  a  Remonstrance  to  the  Prince 
Regent  should  supersede  the  Petition  which  had  been 

1  The  Examiner,  24th  January  1819. 


CHAP,  xi  THE  PLATFORM  QUIESCENT  465 

prepared.  Hunt  concluded  his  speech  by  strenuously 
enforcing  the  necessity  of  a  prompt  and  efficient  muster 
of  the  friends  of  reform,  "  in  order  to  counteract  the 
mischievous  attempts  that  were  secretly  making  to 
undermine  their  liberties,"  and  expressed  his  detestation 
of  the  odious  Corn  Bill  or  starvation  law,  the  repeal  of 
which  was  the  object  of  their  present  assembling. 
Several  other  speeches  followed  from  men  who  stood  at 
the  head  of  the  Manchester  reformers,  and  the  meeting 
broke  up.  About  10,000  persons,  it  was  said,  were 
present;  but  not  the  least  disposition  to  riot  or  turbulence 
was  evinced,  nor  was  there  any  personal  insult  offered 
to  any  individual  whatever. 

In  February,  Westminster  was  enlivened  by  an 
electoral  contest,  extending  over  a  period  of  fifteen 
days,  for  the  seat  rendered  vacant  by  the  death  of  Sir 
S.  Romilly  ;  the  Platform  was  given  plenty  of  occupation 
at  it,  and  the  newspapers  were  filled  with  reports  of  its 
proceedings. 

But  with  these  exceptions  the  Platform  was  idle 
during  the  first  half  of  the  year  1819.  Such  meetings 
as  did  take  place  were  on  another  subject — namely,  in 
favour  of  the  Corn  Laws,  but  they  were  not  on  a  scale 
to  call  for  any  special  notice.  A  large  number  of 
Petitions,  praying  for  further  protection  of  agriculture, 
were  presented  to  Parliament,  but  few  on  other  subjects, 
and  those  not  from  people  assembled  at  meetings. 

As  the  session  drew  near  its  end,  however,  signs  of 
recommencing  agitation  in  parts  of  the  country  began 
to  make  themselves  apparent.  Distressing  accounts 
came  from  the  manufacturing  districts,  of  the  large 
number  of  unemployed  workmen,  of  the  consequent 
wretchedness,  and  increase  of  pauperism.  Notwith- 
standing all  which  the  Government,  early  in  June, 


466         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

determined  on  adding  £3,000,000  to  the  taxation  of 
the  country,  the  great  bulk  of  the  new  taxes  being 
imposed  on  wool,  malt,  spirits,  and  tobacco. 

Weighed  down  with  troubles,  the  people  began  once 
more  to  have  recourse  to  their  one  friend — the  Platform. 
On  the  14th  June  "a  most  numerous  assemblage  of 
unemployed  workmen "  met  at  Hunslet  Moor,  near 
Leeds.  A  "  stage  "  for  the  speakers  had  been  previously 
erected,  and  several  persons  addressed  the  meeting. 
The  great  theme  dwelt  on  was  the  necessity  for  Parlia- 
mentary reform — that  was  the  one  panacea  which  the 
distressed  people  were  never  tired  of  invoking.  Several 
resolutions  were  passed  as  preliminary  to  a  Declaration 
to  be  signed  by  all  "  who  are  determined  not  to  become 
passive  slaves  "  ;  and  it  was  nearly  ten  at  night  before 
the  assemblage  dispersed.  On  the  same  day  a  meeting 
of  the  inhabitants  of  Ashton-under-Lyne  took  place,  some 
12,000  to  15,000  persons  being  present.  The  Reverend 
J.  Harrison  took  the  chair.  He  gave  a  most  pathetic 
account  of  the  deplorable  condition  of  the  poor,  and 
exhorted  his  hearers  to  observe  peace  and  good  order. 
Various  resolutions  were  passed  which  dwelt  on  the 
means  of  remedying  the  people's  distresses';  on  Universal 
Suffrage  and  Annual  Parliaments ;  on  the  Constitution  of 
the  House  of  Commons  as  now  existing,  "  which  was  a 
mockery" ;  on  the  Corn  Laws ;  on  the  contempt  with 
which  their  Petitions  were  treated  ;  on  the  suspension  of 
the  laws  "  in  order  to  be  able  to  keep  men  in  dungeons  "  ; 
and  on  the  "  Acts  of  Indemnity  "  to  screen  Government 
officers  from  deserved  punishment ;  and  finally,  on  the 
necessity  of  resistance  to  increased  taxation  until  every 
sinecure  and  pension  should  be  abolished.  The  people 
dispersed  without  any  tumult.1 

1  The  Examiner,  27th  June  1819. 


CHAP,  xi  THE  PLATFORM  REVIVING  467 

On  the  16th  June  a  numerous  meeting  of  operative 
weavers  took  place  at  Glasgow,  and  a  resolution  was 
carried  for  Annual  Parliaments,  Universal  Suffrage,  and 
a  diminution  of  taxation. 

Another  meeting  was  held  at  Hunslet  Moor  on  21st 
June.  A  Mr.  Booth  took  the  chair.  The  old  lesson 
was  repeated.  "  We  can,"  he  said,  "  only  attribute  our 
distress  to  the  misrule  of  Ministers  and  the  defective 
state  of  our  representative  system."  A  man  named 
Petre  made  a  very  violent  speech,  but  instead  of  its 
receiving  approbation  it  gave  great  offence  to  many, 
and  it  was  insinuated  that  he  was  a  Government  spy, 
endeavouring  to  lead  the  people  into  actions  which 
would  enable  the  Government  to  suppress  the  right  of 
Platform  speech. 

A  numerous  meeting  was  held  at  Dewsbury,  in 
Yorkshire,  on  the  21st,  at  which  reform  was  de- 
manded. Similar  meetings  were  also  held  the  same 
day  at  Manchester,  and  at  other  places  in  Yorkshire 
and  Lancashire.  "  These  different  assemblies  every- 
where conducted  themselves  peaceably,  and  there  was 
no  occasion  for  calling  on  either  the  civil  or  military 
power." 

It  was  beginning  to  be  evident  that  the  civic  popu- 
lation of  the  country,  temporarily  silenced  by  the 
repressive  legislation  of  1817,  was  again  moving.  Nor 
was  it  to  be  wondered  at.  The  only  wonder  was  that 
they  were  so  submissive,  so  long-suffering,  so  quiet. 
Parliament  had  done  nothing  for  them — had,  on  the 
contrary,  added  to  their  burdens ;  it  had  turned  a  deaf 
ear  to  their  complaints ;  it  had  spurned  their  petitions  ; 
it  persisted  in  maintaining  for  its  own  advantage  the 
most  outrageous  abuses,  and  perpetrating  the  most 
shameful  jobs.  Constituted  by  a  corrupt  and  degraded 


468         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  11 

system  of  so-called  representation,  the  Commons  House 
of  Parliament  systematically  set  the  interests  of  its 
majority  above  the  interests  of  the  people,  and  resented 
with  violence  the  least  indication  of  a  movement  which 
suggested  the  curtailment  of  their  selfishly-used  power, 
or  the  bringing  of  the  House  more  into  accordance  with 
the  views  and  interests  of  the  people.  "  Reform  is 
innovation  ;  innovation  is  revolution  ;  revolution  means 
the  guillotine  and  the  dagger ;  down  with  reform." 
Such  was  the  exaggerated  formula  with  which  was 
justified  the  maintenance  of  the  existing  order  of  things. 

Though  the  ministerial  majority  possessed  the  power 
to  refuse  reform,  they  could  not  prevent  the  subject 
being  discussed.  And  on  the  1st  July  Sir  F.  Burdett 
gave  the  question  an  additional  impulse  in  the  country 
by  bringing  forward  a  motion  about  it  in  Parliament.1 
"  He  was  convinced,"  he  said,  "  that,  according  to  the 
true  principles  of  the  English  Constitution,  every  man  is 
entitled  to  participate  in  the  power  of  making  those 
laws  by  which  he  is  governed — to  some  share  in  the 
appointment  of  those  who  dispose  of  his  liberty,  his 
property,  and  his  life.  .  .  .  He  could  not  feel  any  appre- 
hension from  pursuing  too  far  the  ancient  and  recognised 
common  law  maxim,  the  corner-stone  of  the  edifice  of 
our  liberties,  '  that  the  people  of  England  have  a  pro- 
perty in  their  own  goods,  which  are  not  to  be  taken 
from  them  without  their  own  consent ' ;  in  other  words, 
that  they  are  not  constitutionally  liable  to  be  taxed 
without  their  own  consent,  expressed  by  a  full,  free,  and 
fair  representation  in  Parliament.  On  this  principle  he 
stood,  as  upon  a  rock,  from  which  he  thought  it  impos- 
sible to  be  removed." 

But    the    Government   would    have    none    of    it. 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xl.  1819,  vol.  xl.  p.  1440. 


CHAP,  xi  INCREASING  AGITATION  469 

Waithman  "  implored  the  House  to  take  this  subject 
into  its  most  serious  consideration,  to  apply  a  remedy, 
to  carry  tranquillity,  and  confidence  to  the  people  "  ; l 
but  the  motion  was  rejected  by  153  votes  to  58,  and 
once  more  the  masses  of  the  people  of  England  were 
told  that  the  House  of  Commons — the  people's  House — 
should  remain  a  close  corporation — once  more  were  they 
shown  that  a  phalanx  of  peers  and  boroughmongers 
were  determined  at  all  costs  to  retain  the  monopoly  of 
Government  which  the  existing  Constitution  gave  them. 

And  so  the  people  were  driven  to  the  Platform,  to 
meetings,  and  resolutions,  to  speeches,  which  now  would 
be  regarded  as  harmless,  but  which  then  were  regarded 
as  seditious,  or  treasonable,  if  legal  ingenuity  could 
twist  them  into  being  so.  The  truer  the  speeches  were, 
and  the  more  self-evident  and  uncontradictable  the 
resolutions  adopted  by  the  meetings,  the  more  wroth 
were  the  Government  and  their  followers. 

As  the  summer  went  on  the  agitation  in  the  manu- 
facturing districts  grew  apace,  and  the  local  authorities 
grew  alarmed.  On  the  1st  July  five  magistrates  of 
Lancashire  made  the  following  representation  to  the 
Government :  "  Upon  the  general  view  of  the  subject, 
we  cannot  have  a  doubt  that  some  alarming  insurrec- 
tion is  in  contemplation.  Of  the  deep  distresses  of  the 
manufacturing  classes  of  this  extensive  population  your 
Lordship  is  fully  apprised,  and  the  disaffected  and  ill- 
disposed  lose  no  opportunity  of  instilling  the  worst 
principles  into  the  unhappy  sufferers  in  these  times, 
attributing  their  calamities  not  to  any  event  which 
cannot  be  controlled,  but  to  the  general  measures  of 
Government  and  Parliament ;  and  when  the  people  are 
oppressed  with  hunger,  we  do  not  wonder  at  their 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xl.  p.  1492. 


470         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"  giving  ear  to  any  doctrines  which  they  are  told  will 
redress  their  grievances.  Although  we  cannot  but 
applaud  the  hitherto  peaceable  demeanour  of  many  of 
the  labouring  classes,  yet  we  do  not  calculate  upon  their 
remaining  unmoved.  Urged  on  by  the  harangues  of  a 
few  desperate  demagogues,  we  anticipate  at  no  distant 
period  a  general  rising,  and  possessing  no  power  to 
prevent  the  meetings  which  are  weekly  held,  we,  as 
magistrates,  are  at  a  loss  how  to  stem  the  influence  of 
dangerous  and  seditious  doctrines  which  are  continually 
disseminated.  To  these  meetings  and  the  unbounded 
liberty  of  the  Press  we  refer  the  principal  weight  of  the 
evil  which  we  apprehend."1 

And  on  the  13th  of  July,  at  the  Quarter  Sessions 
for  the  county  of  Chester,  a  resolution  was  passed  by 
the  magistrates  stating,  "  That  it  appears  that  various 
public  meetings  have  lately  been  held  in  this  and  the 
neighbouring  counties,  at  which  evil  -  disposed  and 
designing  persons,  taking  advantage  of  the  depression 
of  trade  and  the  consequent  distress,  have  wickedly 
disseminated  inflammatory  doctrines,  and  under  the 
false  pretext  of  Parliamentary  reform,  have  vilified  the 
constituted  authorities,  inciting  thereby  the  ignorant  and 
unwary  to  insurrection  and  the  commission  of  crimes." 

Though  numerous  meetings  were  being  held  in  many 
parts  of  the  country,  there  was,  whilst  Parliament  sat, 
no  sufficient  excuse  even  for  such  a  Government  as  was 
then  in  power,  to  revive  either  the  Suspension  of  the 
Habeas  Corpus  Act,  or  the  Seditious  Meetings  Act ; 
and  Parliament  was  prorogued  on  the  13th  of  July 
without  any  restrictive  legislation  being  adopted.  On 
the  eve  of  the  prorogation,  however — namely,  on  the 

1  See  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xli.  p.  230 — "  Papers  relative  to  the  internal 
state  of  the  country. " 


CHAP,  xi  BIRMINGHAM'S  REPRESENTATION  471 

12th  of  July — a  public  meeting  took  place,  which,  had 
the  intelligence  of  it  reached  London  sooner,  might 
have  altered  the  date  of  the  prorogation.  It  was  held 
at  Birmingham,  on  Newhall  Hill,  "for  the  purpose  of 
considering  of  the  best  means  of  obtaining  a  representa- 
tion of  the  people  of  this  town  in  Parliament,  and  also 
of  the  representation  of  all  the  unrepresented  inhabit- 
ants of  the  Empire." 

The  meeting  was  not  a  very  brilliant  affair,  but  it 
was  altogether  different  from  any  that  had  preceded  it. 
It  disconcerted  the  Government  more  than  any  other 
that  had  been  held,  and  was  instructive  as  showing  how 
deeply  the  minds  of  the  people  were  running  on  Par- 
liamentary reform,  and  to  what  devices  they  were 
prepared  to  resort  to  obtain  it.  In  papers  subsequently 
laid  before  Parliament,  a  description  of  the  meeting 
was  given,  evidently  not  by  a  friendly  hand.1 

"  An  attempt  was  first  made  to  collect  a  crowd  by  a 
miserable  procession,  as  it  was  called,  of  Major  Cart- 
wright  (a  veteran  reformer),2  Wooller,  and  Edmunds, 
in  a  street  chariot  carrying  two  flags,  and  by  one 
Haddocks,  whose  father  had  been  executed,  and  brother 
transported,  'upon  a  bank  prosecution.'  The  chair  was 
taken  by  Edmunds  (the  proprietor  of  a  newspaper). 
From  10,000  to  25,000  persons  were  present,  of  whom, 
however,  a  great  proportion  were  women  and  children. 
The  most  violent  speaker  was  Lewis ;  the  tenor  of  all 
the  speeches  was  abuse  of  the  body  calling  itself  the 
House  of  Commons." 

Edmunds,  Haddocks,  a  schoolmaster,  and  Wooller, 
spoke ;  and  the  novel  idea  was  propounded,  that  as 
Birmingham  had  no  representative  in  Parliament,  and 

1  Hansard,   Parliamentary  Debates,  2  He  was  aged  eighty-two  at  the  time. 

1819,  vol.  xli.  p.  233. 


472         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

Parliament  would  not  give  Birmingham  one,  the  best 
thing  was  for  Birmingham  to  send  a  representative  to 
Parliament  in  despite  of  Parliament ;  accordingly  Sir 
Charles  Wolseley1  was  proposed  to  the  meeting  as  a 
most  eligible  person  for  such  a  position,  and  was  elected 
by  the  meeting  "  amid  the  thundering  acclamations  of 
one  undivided  multitude,"  to  be  "  Legislatorial  Attor- 
ney "  and  representative  of  the  people  of  Birmingham 
in  Parliament  for  one  year,  "if  so  long  he  executed  his 
trust  faithfully  ; "  and  he  was  charged  to  present  himself 
at  the  bar  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  to  claim 
admission. 

Edmunds,  in  the  course  of  his  speech,  is  reported  to 
have  said  : 2  "It  was  asked  of  what  use  could  any  one 
man  be  in  the  House  of  Commons,  five  hundred  of  the 
seats  of  which  are  articles  of  purchase,  and  always  go  to 
the  best  bidder ;  in  which  it  has  been  allowed  that  the 
sale  of  seats  is  as  notorious  as  the  sun  at  noonday? 
Of  what  use  would  one  man  be  in  a  House  that  treated 
with  contempt  the  prayers  of  a  million  of  men,  no 
doubt  expressing  the  sentiments  of  other  millions  when 
they  prayed  for  reform  ?  What  would  be  the  power  of 
one  man  among  a  body  of  oligarchs,  who,  in  spite  of  the 
prayers  of  an  undoubted  majority,  passed  the  Corn  Bill 
(of  1815),  or  among  the  tyrants  who  dared  to  suspend 
the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  ?  The  effect  to  be  produced  is 
not  in  the  House,  but  upon  the  country  and  upon 
public  opinion.  The  claim  of  the  people  of  Birmingham 
is  founded  upon  the  same  principle  as  that  of  the  people 
of  England.  It  is,  therefore,  one  of  the  means  of 
advancing  the  general  cause.  It  is  very  difficult  for 
people  to  reason  upon  abstract  questions.  The  present 

1  He  was  unable  to  be  present,  owing          a  State  Trials,  New  Series,   vol.   i. 
to  the  death  of  his  mother.  p.  794. 


CHAP,  xi  BIRMINGHAM'S  REPRESENTATION  473 

proceeding  supplies  a  fact.  We  have  been  long  talking 
about  the  right  of  the  people  to  representation.  We 
are  now  about  to  exercise  the  right.  This  is  doing 
something,  and  something  which,  from  its  novelty,  as 
well  as  its  justice,  will  excite  a  very  general  sensation 
throughout  the  country.  Every  one  must  allow  that 
something  ought  to  be  done.  Look  into  the  cause  of 
those  distresses  which  universally  prevail,  and  we  shall 
find  that  it  arises  from  the  bad  state  of  the  representative 
organ  of  the  Legislature." 

Haddocks  also  spoke,  and  is  reported  to  have  said  : 
"  I  consider,  that  as  the  source  of  all  our  calamities,  and, 
in  a  considerable  degree,  the  calamities  of  a  great  part 
of  the  world,  lies  in  the  corrupt  state  of  the  representa- 
tion of  the  people  of  England  in  Parliament,  every 
Englishman  who  deserves  the  name  ought  to  join  heart 
and  hand  in  laying  open  and  exposing  to  the  world  those 
base  and  infamous  transactions  of  the  Honourable  House 
through  which  Englishmen  have  been  treated  no  better 
than  the  slaves  of  the  despot  of  Spain  or  those  of  the 
Dey  of  Algiers."1 

Some  resolutions  were  duly  passed,  and  the  meeting 
dispersed,  no  disorder  or  breach  of  the  peace  having 
occurred. 

The  idea  of  sending  a  representative  to  Parliament 
in  this  manner  was  absurd,  and  in  itself  a  proof  of  the 
ignorance  of  those  who  originated  it,  but  it  showed  con- 
clusively the  hopelessness  of  the  people  as  to  obtaining 
Parliamentary  reform  from  Parliament  itself,  and  their 
abiding  faith  in  the  efficacy  of  Parliamentary  reform  for 
the  alleviation  of  their  ills. 

Foiled  at  every  turn  in  their  effort  for  reform, 
receiving  stripes  and  punishment  whenever  the  law 

1  State  Trials,  New  Series,  vol.  i.  p.  795. 


474         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

could  be  brought  into  operation  against  them,  sunk  in 
misery,  and  poverty,  and  hardships,  and  starvation, 
groaning  under  the  infamous  injustice  of  the  existing 
state  of  things,  and  convinced  that  in  reform  lay  their 
only  hope  of  safety,  one  cannot,  I  think,  hold  the  people 
in  any  way  morally  blamable  for  their  agitation. 

From  Birmingham  we  may  follow  the  agitation  to 
London.  Here,  on  the  21st  July,  a  meeting  was  held 
at  Smithfield.  Hunt  arrived  about  one  o'clock  and 
ascended  a  waggon,  from  which  he  spoke.  It  was  said 
that  70,000  persons  were  present.  He  wound  up  his 
speech  by  saying  "  He  was  sure  it  was  not  necessary  for 
him  to  request  them  to  suffer  nothing  to  instigate  them 
to  acts  of  riot ;  what  they  wanted  was  not  devastation, 
but  the  recovery  of  their  rights."  Certain  resolutions 
were  then  read  and  carried ;  the  first  declared  the 
inherent  right  of  every  man  to  be  free.  The  succeeding 
ones  contained  propositions  founded  upon  the  principle 
of  every  man  being  entitled  to  a  voice  in  the  election  of 
representatives  who  made  the  laws,  and  that  no  man 
ought  to  be  taxed  without  his  previous  participation  in 
that  right.  They  declared  that  the  members  of  the 
present  House  of  Commons  were  not  in  such  manner 
justly  elected;  that  after  the  1st  January  1820  they 
could  not  consider  themselves  conscientiously  bound  by 
any  enactments  made  by  persons  who  did  not  represent 
them  ;  that  with  a  view  to  accelerate  the  choice  of  just 
representatives,  books  should  be  opened  for  the  enrol- 
ment of  every  man  of  mature  age,  and  sound  mind,  so 
as  to  enable  him  to  give  his  vote  when  required  to  do 
so,  and  that  an  humble  address  should  be  presented  to 
the  Prince  Regent,  requesting  him  to  issue  his  writs  to 
the  returning  officers  of  the  Empire,  to  cause  representa- 
tives to  be  chosen  agreeably  to  these  resolutions.  A 


CHAP,  xi  SMITHFIELD  MEETING  475 

resolution  was  also  passed  in  favour  of  Catholic  emanci- 
pation, and  another  disclaiming  the  National  Debt. 

As  if  with  the  distinct  object  of  provoking  a  riot, 
the  authorities  arrested  the  Reverend  Mr.  Harrison 
while  the  meeting  was  proceeding.  He  was  with  Hunt 
on  the  waggon,  which  was  used  as  a  platform,  and  was 
to  have  spoken  ;  but  as  he  at  once  surrendered  himself, 
and  as  the  people  were  urgently  counselled  to  preserve 
quiet,  no  riot  ensued.  After  this  interruption,  Hunt 
read  a  letter  from  Lord  Sidmouth,  stating  that  he 
declined  to  present  to  the  Regent  two  Remonstrances 
which  had  been  voted — one  at  a  meeting  in  Westminster, 
and  another  at  Manchester.  A  resolution  was  thereupon 
proposed  and  passed  :  "  That  this  meeting,  jealous  of  the 
right  they  possess  of  addressing  by  Petition,  Memorial, 
or  Remonstrance,  the  highest  authority  of  the  Govern- 
ment, with  feelings  of  indignation  towards  any  individual 
that  presumes  to  stand  in  the  way  of  this  right,  publicly 
censure  the  conduct  of  Lord  Sidmouth  for  having  dared 
to  withhold  Petitions  and  Remonstrances  from  the 
Prince  Regent." 

One  other  little  incident  is  worth  noticing  in  con- 
nection with  this  meeting.  "  A  Mr.  Gast,  a  ship  car- 
penter from  Deptford,  addressed  the  meeting.  He 
refuted  the  calumny  (advanced  in  the  House  of 
Commons)  that  the  lower  orders  were  too  ignorant  to 
understand  the  mysteries  of  Government.  The  lower 
orders  of  society  were  more  wise  in  the  regulation  of 
their  private  affairs  than  Ministers  were  in  the  regula- 
tion of  the  affairs  of  the  public." 

On  the  28th  July  a  meeting  was  held  at  Stockport.1 
Some  4000  to  5000  persons  were  present  "  Most  of 
the  men  had  large  sticks,  which  appeared  to  have  been 

1  See  Annual  Register,  1820,  p.  908,  etc. 


476         THE  PLATFORM  :  ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"  newly  cut  from  the  hedges.  Several  persons  were  on  the 
scaffold."  There  were  flags — one  of  them  surmounted 
by  a  cap  of  Liberty — with  the  mottoes  of  "  Universal 
Suffrage,"  "  Annual  Parliaments,"  "  Election  by  Ballot," 
"  No  Corn  Laws."  It  was,  unfortunately,  not  as  peace- 
able a  meeting  as  usual,  for  a  constable  was  severely 
maltreated ;  in  fact,  nearly  killed  by  some  persons  in  the 
crowd. 

The  chair  was  taken  by  Sir  Charles  Wolseley,  the 
"  Legislatorial  Attorney  for  Birmingham,"  who  made  a 
speech.  He  said  "  He  was  a  most  determined  friend  of 
the  people,  and  should  remain  so  while  there  was  a  drop 
of  blood  in  his  heart.  .  .  .  He  was  proud  to  say  that 
he  had  been  at  the  taking  of  the  Bastile  in  France,  and 
would  be  happy  to  be  at  the  taking  of  a  Bastile  in  Eng- 
land. Were  all  hearts  but  as  firm  in  the  cause  as  his 
own,  they  would  soon  put  an  end  to  the  present  tyranny 
and  corruption.  They  should  be  firm  and  united,  for  in 
a  few  weeks  the  struggle  would  be  made  and  ended." 

Harrison,  whose  arrest  has  just  been  recorded,  but 
who  had  since  been  released,  also  spoke,  and  was  re- 
ported to  have  said  :  "  The  House  of  Commons  were  the 
people's  servants.  It  was  as  absurd  to  petition  them  as  it 
would  be  for  a  master  to  petition  his  groom  for  his  horse. 
.  .  .  There  was  a  barrier  between  the  throne  and  the 
people  which  must  be  removed  either  by  force  from 
heaven  or  hell,  in  order  that  they  might  see  whether  a 
man  or  a  pig  was  upon  the  throne.  .  .  .  The  united 
will  of  the  people  was  sure  to  prevail.  It  was  an  axiom 
that  could  not  be  confuted."1  Several  resolutions  were 
passed,  one  of  which  was  that  Lord  Sidmouth  had  been 
guilty  of  high  treason.  Both  Sir  C.  Wolseley  and 

1  These  sentences  are  quoted  because       the  grounds  of  a  prosecution  against 
they  were  those  selected  afterwards  as       both  the  speakers. 


CHAP,  xi         PROCLAMATION  AGAINST  SPEECHES  477 

Harrison  were  subsequently  prosecuted  for  these 
speeches,  and  the  prosecution  is  specially  notable  as 
affording  a  very  early  if  not  quite  the  first  instance  of 
the  use  of  the  word  "  platform  "  as  applied  to  the  place 
from  which  speeches  were  made.  The  Annual  Register 
(1820,  p.  909)  reports  the  Crown  prosecutor  as  saying, 
'•At  a  particular  house  a  platform  had  been  erected 
upon  which  the  leaders  mounted."  From  this  use  of  the 
word,  the  transition  to  calling  the  speeches  Platform 
speeches  was  quite  obvious  and  natural. 

Meetings  followed  meetings  quickly  enough  now, 
and  the  Government  thought  it  desirable  to  make  a 
move.  Accordingly,  on  the  30th  of  July  1819,  the 
Regent  issued  a  proclamation.1 

"  Whereas  in  divers  parts  of  Great  Britain  meetings 
of  large  numbers  of  his  Majesty's  subjects  have  been 
held  upon  the  requisition  of  persons  who  have,  by 
seditious  and  treasonable  speeches  addressed  to  the 
persons  assembled,  endeavoured  to  bring  into  hatred 
and  contempt  the  Government  and  Constitution  estab- 
lished in  this  realm,  and  particularly  the  Commons 
House  of  Parliament,  and  to  excite  disobedience  to  the 
laws,  and  insurrection  against  his  Majesty's  authority ; 
and  whereas  at  one  of  such  meetings  (Birmingham)  the 
persons  there  assembled,  in  gross  violation  of  the  law, 
did,  as  much  as  in  them  lay,  nominate  a  person,  to  sit 
in  their  name  and  on  their  behalf  in  the  Commons 
House  of  Parliament,"  the  people  were  solemnly  warned 
against  every  attempt  to  overthrow  the  law,  and  all 
magistrates,  etc.,  were  charged  to  use  their  best 
endeavour  to  bring  to  justice  all  persons  "who  had  been 
or  may  be  guilty  of  uttering  seditious  speeches  and 
harangues." 

1  Annual  Register,  1819,  pp.  123,  124. 


478         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

Proclamations  do  not  make  a  law ;  this  one  had 
little  effect,  and  there  was  no  cessation  of  meetings. 
On  the  31st  of  July  there  was  a  meeting  at  Hudders- 
field.  It  was  addressed  by  a  shoemaker  and  a  weaver 
— into  such  hands  had  the  political  guidance  of  the 
people  come,  owing  to  the  neglect  of  the  higher  or 
better  educated  classes,  and  their  refusal  to  give  the 
people  their  assistance,  protection,  or  advice.  Resolu- 
tions were  passed  recommending  that  the  example  of 
Birmingham  should  be  followed.  On  the  3d  of  August 
a  meeting  was  held  at  Birmingham  in  favour  of  reform, 
and  it  was  resolved  by  some  of  the  reformers  that  they 
should  form  themselves  into  a  society  to  be  called 
"  the  Birmingham  Union."  At  a  meeting  at  Leigh, 
near  Manchester,  a  few  days  later  there  was  "  a  great 
concourse  of  the  lower  order  of  people  "  ;  and  the  authori- 
ties again  apparently  deliberately  attempted  to  provoke 
a  riot  by  arresting  a  man  who  was  on  the  Platform, 
whilst  the  meeting  was  in  full  swing.  The  people, 
however,  were  irritatingly  quiet  and  peaceable ;  "  the 
officers  took  their  man  without  opposition,"  as  reported 
an  eye-witness.1  Indeed,  all  the  meetings  except  that 
at  Stockport  passed  over  without  any  disturbance  or 
violence,  and  afforded  the  Government  no  justification 
on  that  ground  for  again  suppressing  the  right  of 
meeting. 

At  last,  however,  the  authorities  succeeded  in  their 
oft-repeated  attempts  at  provoking  a  disturbance,  and 
so  well  contrived  and  carried  out  was  their  action  that 
disturbance  was  inevitable.  This  was  at  the  historic 
meeting  at  Manchester,  celebrated  ever  after  under  the 
name  of  Peterloo. 

Early  in  August  the  Manchester  reformers  deter- 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xli.  p.  251. 


CHAP,  xi  PETERLOO  479 

mined  to  follow  the  example  of  Birmingham  in  electing 
a  representative,  and  they  issued  a  notice  of  a  meeting 
to  be  holden  for  that  purpose ;  but  as  the  meeting  was 
for  an  illegal  purpose,  it  was  prohibited  by  the  local 
authorities — the  magistrates — and  the  design  was  re- 
linquished. 

Shortly  after,  however,  the  reformers  advertised  a 
meeting  for  the  16th  of  August  for  an  object  the 
legality  of  which  was  fully  acknowledged — namely,  "  To 
consider  the  propriety  of  adopting  the  most  legal  and 
effectual  means  of  obtaining  a  reform  in  the  Commons 
House  of  Parliament," — and  they  invited  Hunt  to  come 
down  and  speak  at  it. 

The  meeting  was  attended  by  large  numbers  of 
persons  from  Rochdale,  Stockport,  Oldham,  and  other 
neighbouring  places,  as  well  as  by  the  Manchester 
people,  and  among  those  present  were  many  women 
and  children.  No  arms  were  carried,  and  the  demeanour 
of  all  was  peaceable  and  orderly.  From  eleven  to  one 
o'clock  various  columns,  some  of  them  several  thousands 
strong,  arrived,  marching  in  regular  files  of  three  or  four 
deep,  with  conductors,  bands,  and  flags ;  a  blue  flag,  in 
silk,  with  inscriptions  in  golden  letters — "  Unity  and 
Strength,"  "  Liberty  and  Fraternity  "  ;  a  green  one,  also 
in  silk,  with  golden  letters — "  Parliaments  Annual," 
"  Suffrage  Universal."  Others  with  various  other 
mottoes — "  No  Corn  Laws,"  "  Let  us  die  like  men  and 
not  be  sold  like  slaves."  There  appeared  also,  borne  on 
a  staff,  "  a  Cap  of  Liberty," — a  handsome  cap  of  crimson 
velvet,  with  a  tuft  of  laurel,  tastefully  braided  with  the 
word  "  Liberty  "  in  front ;  also  among  the  number  of 
flags  an  ensign  with  a  bloody  pike  on  it ;  and  another, 
a  black  one,  with  the  words  "  Equal  representation  or 
death."  About  60,000  to  80,000  persons  had  assembled 


480         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  ir 

when  Hunt,  who  was  to  preside,  arrived.     As  soon  as 
he  could  secure  silence  he  began  making  a  speech. 

He  referred  to  their  previous  meeting  having  been 
prevented,  and  said,  "  That  those  who  had  attempted  to 
put  it  down  by  the  most  malignant  exertions  had  occa- 
sioned them  to  meet  that  day  in  more  than  twofold 
numbers."  He  spoke  a  few  sentences  more.  Then,  as 
described  by  an  eye-witness,1  "At  this  stage  of  the 
business  the  Yeomanry  cavalry  were  seen  advancing  in 
a  rapid  trot  to  the  area ;  their  ranks  were  in  disorder, 
and  on  arriving  within  it,  they  halted  to  breathe  their 
horses  and  to  recover  their  ranks.  .  .  .  After  a  moment's 
pause  the  cavalry  drew  their  swords,  and  brandished 
them  fiercely  in  the  air;  upon  which  Hunt  and  Johnson 
desired  the  multitude  to  give  three  cheers,  to  show  the 
military  that  they  were  not  to  be  daunted  in  the  dis- 
charge of  their  duty  by  their  unwelcome  presence.  This 
they  did,  upon  which  Mr.  Hunt  again  proceeded  (with 
his  speech)  :  '  This  was  a  mere  trick/  he  said,  '  to 
interrupt  the  proceedings  of  the  meeting,  but  he  trusted 
that  they  would  all  stand  firm.'  He  had  scarcely  said 
these  words,  before  the  Manchester  Yeomanry  cavalry 
rode  into  the  mob,  which  gave  way  before  them,  and 
directed  their  course  to  the  cart  from  which  Hunt  was 
speaking.  Not  a  brickbat  was  thrown  at  them,  not  a 
pistol  was  fired  during  this  period.  All  was  quiet  and 
orderly,  as  if  the  cavalry  had  been  the  friends  of  the 
multitude,  and  had  marched  as  such  into  the  midst  of 
them.  .  .  .  Hunt  and  Johnson  were  forthwith  arrested 
under  warrants  issued  by  the  magistrates  who  were 

1  I   have   taken   this  account  from  the  police.    For  some  further  and  most 

The  Times  of  the  19th  August,  which  interesting  details    which   show   how 

is  the  fairest  and  most  graphic  account  completely  the  authorities  were  in  the 

available.    The  writer  of  it  was  present  wrong,  and  how  brazenly  false  was  the 

on  the  Platform  or  hustings,  and  he  account  given  by  their  friends,  see  The 

was  arrested  with  "the  reformers"  by  Times  of  26th  August,  p.  2. 


CHAP,  xi  PETERLOO  481 

sitting  in  a  house  close  by.  As  soon  as  Hunt  and  John- 
son had  jumped  from  the  waggon,  a  cry  was  made  by 
the  cavalry,  '  Have  at  their  flags ! '  In  consequence, 
they  immediately  dashed  not  only  at  the  flags  which 
were  in  the  waggon,  but  those  which  were  posted  among 
the -crowd,  cutting  most  indiscriminately  to  the  right 
and  to  the  left,  in  order  to  get  at  them.  This  set  the 
people  running  in  all  directions,  and  it  was  not  until 
this  act  had  been  committed  that  any  brickbats  were 
hurled  at  the  military.  From  that  moment  the  Man- 
chester Yeomanry  cavalry  lost  all  command  of  temper." 
Bamford,1  who  was  also  present,  but  in  a  different 
part  of  the  meeting,  has  thus  described  the  occurrence  : 
"  On  the  cavalry  drawing  up  they  were  received  with  a 
shout  of  goodwill,  as  I  understood  it.  They  shouted 
again,  waving  their  sabres  over  their  heads ;  and  then, 
slackening  rein,  and  striking  spur  into  their  steeds,  they 
dashed  forward  and  began  cutting  the  people.  '  Stand 
fast,'  I  said  ;  '  they  are  riding  upon  us ;  stand  fast ;'  and 
there  was  a  general  cry  in  our  quarter  of  '  Stand  fast/ 
The  cavalry  were  in  confusion ;  they  evidently  could  not, 
with  all  the  weight  of  man  and  horse,  penetrate  that 
compact  mass  of  human  beings ;  and  their  sabres  were 
plied  to  hew  a  way  through  naked  held -up  hands  and 
defenceless  heads  ;  and  then  chopped  limbs  and  wound- 
gaping  skulls  were  seen,  and  groans  and  cries  were 
mingled  with  the  din  of  that  horrid  confusion.  '  Ah,  ah ! ' 
'  For  shame  !'  '  for  shame  !'  was  shouted.  Then  '  Break, 
break ;  they  are  killing  them  in  front,  and  they  cannot 
get  away;'  and  there  was  a  general  cry  of  '  Break,  break! 
For  a  moment  the  crowd  held  back,  as  in  a  pause,  then 
was  a  rush,  heavy  and  resistless  as  a  headlong  sea,  and 
a  sound  like  low  thunder,  with  screams,  prayers,  and  impre- 

1  Bamford,  vol.  i.  p.  206. 


482         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

"  cations  from  the  crowd-moiled,  and  sabre-doomed  who 
could  not  escape.  .  .  .  On  the  breaking  of  the  crowd, 
the  Yeomanry  wheeled  ;  and  dashing  wherever  there  was 
an  opening,  they  followed,  pressing  and  wounding.  In  ten 
minutes  from  the  commencement  of  the  havoc,  the  field 
was  an  open  and  almost  deserted  space.  The  sun  looked 
down  through  a  sultry  and  motionless  air.  The  curtains 
and  blinds  of  the  windows  within  view  were  all  closed. 
A  gentleman  or  two  might  occasionally  be  seen  looking 
out  from  one  of  the  new  houses  before  mentioned,  near 
the  door  of  which  a  group  of  persons  (special  constables) 
were  collected,  apparently  in  conversation ;  others  were 
assisting  the  wounded  or  carrying  off  the  dead.  The 
hustings  remained  with  a  few  broken  and  hewed  flag- 
staves  erect,  and  a  torn  and  gashed  banner  or  two 
drooping ;  whilst  over  the  whole  field  were  strewed, 
caps,  bonnets,  hats,  shawls,  and  other  parts  of  male  and 
female  dress,  trampled,  torn,  and  bloody.  The  Yeomanry 
had  dismounted  ;  some  were  easing  their  horses'  girths  ; 
others  adjusting  their  accoutrements ;  and  some  were 
wiping  their  sabres.  Several  mounds  of  human  beings 
still  remained  where  they  had  fallen,  crushed  down,  and 
smothered ;  some  were  still  groaning ;  others,  with 
staring  eyes,  were  gasping  for  breath  ;  and  others  would 
never  breathe  more." 

Subsequent  accounts  showed  that  eleven  people  were 
killed,  over  500  wounded,  of  whom  about  140  were 
wounded  by  sabres.1 

Great  was  the  excitement  caused  throughout  the 
country  by  this  unfortunate  affair  ;  bitter  was  the  wrath 
arid  indignation  of  the  masses  of  the  people.  The  meet- 
ing had  been  announced  for  several  days  before  it  was 
held ;  it  was  admittedly  for  a  legal  object ;  no  disturbance 

1  See  Prentice's  Mandicster,  p.  167. 


CHAP,  xi  PETERLOO  483 

of  any  kind  had  been  caused  by  the  people,  not  an 
illegal  word  had  been  spoken,  not  a  vestige  of  provoca- 
tion had  been  given,  when  suddenly  the  Yeomanry, 
without  even  the  slightest  notice,  with  no  public  reading 
of  the  Riot  Act,  charged  the  defenceless  crowd  of  men, 
women,  and  children,  sabring  them  right  and  left.  The 
public  wrath  was,  if  possible,  intensified  when,  almost  as 
fast  as  the  mail  coach  could  reach  London  and  come  back 
again,  a  letter  came  from  Lord  Sidmouth,1  expressing  to 
the  magistrates  the  "  great  satisfaction  derived  by  his 
Royal  Highness  (the  Prince  Regent)  from  their  prompt, 
decisive,  and  efficient  measures  for  the  preservation  of 
the  public  tranquillity,"  and  to  the  military  authorities, 
"  his  high  approbation  "  of  the  services  of  the  military 
on  the  occasion. 

But  this  outrage  on  public  liberty  was  too  serious 
and  too  tragic,  too  iniquitous  to  be  disposed  of  by  the 
"  great  satisfaction  "  even  of  the  Prince  Regent  and  his 
Ministers.  A  more  unprovoked  and  brutal  attack  on  an 
unarmed  and  orderly  assembly  had  never  been  com- 
mitted in  the  whole  course  of  the  history  of  the  country, 
and  the  people,  justly  incensed  by  the  conduct  of  the 
authorities,  had  instant  recourse  to  the  Platform  for  the 
expression  of  their  feelings. 

"  Eleven  persons  killed,  600  wounded,  60,000  carry- 
ing to  their  homes  the  recollections  of  that  fatal  day; 
poverty  and  misery  in  every  cottage ;  deep  distress, 
attributable  not  unjustly  to  heavy  taxation  and  a  law 
prohibiting  the  importation  of  food.  Was  there  no  wild 

1  The  letter  was  dated  21st  August,  lie  expressed  his  approval,  as  he  was 

or  five  days  after  the  outrage,  and  it  away  at  Christchnrch  yachting.     His 

;' was  sanctioned  by  a  Cabinet  Council,"  secretary's    letter    conveying    his    ap- 

\vhose  members  could  not  possibly  have  proval    to    Lord   Sidmouth    is    dated 

known  the   rights   or   wrongs   of  the  19th  August — "  Royal  George  Yacht  off 

occurrence.    Still  less  could  the  Regent  Christchurch," — just  three   days  after, 

have  known  anything  about  it  when  the  sad  event. 


484         THE  PLATFORM:    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"  revenge  for  the  injuries  inflicted  ?  no  vengeance  on  the 
instruments  of  an  iron-handed  Government  ?  no  retalia- 
tion with  the  dagger  for  the  cruel  and  wanton  assault  by 
the  sword  ?  There  was  not.  The  population  of  Lanca- 
shire had  faith  in  the  just  administration  of  the  law.  Its 
working  men,  rough  in  manner  and  rude  in  speech,  but 
shrewd,  intelligent,  and  possessing  much  of  the  generous 
qualities  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  would  not  stoop  to 
cowardly  assassination.  They  had  faith  in  their  prin- 
ciples and  greater  belief  in  moral  than  physical  force. 
.  .  .  The  men  of  Lancashire  would  not  seek  reform 
through  the  horrors  of  a  sanguinary  revolution." 

A  few  days  after  the  "massacre,"  as  it  was  called, 
a  meeting  took  place  near  Huddersfield,  one  of  several. 
A  description  of  it  is  given  in  a  letter,  dated  20th 
August,  from  certain  magistrates  there  to  Lord  Fitz- 
william,  the  Lord  Lieutenant  of  the  West  Biding  of  the 
county.  "  About  seven  o'clock  last  evening  a  large 
multitude  of  people  were  suddenly  assembled  within 
half  a  mile  of  the  town,  to  the  number  of  about  3000. 
A  person  from  Manchester  related  to  them  what  had 
taken  place  there,  and  concluded  by  telling  them  that 
now  was  the  time  to  be  revenged.  Another  person  then 
said,  that  all  who  were  willing  to  support  the  cause  of 
radical  reform  by  force,  should  signify  the  same  in  the 
usual  way,  which  was  answered  by  a  tremendous  shout 
from  the  multitude.  He  then  informed  them  that  a 
meeting  would  be  held  the  next  night  at  Fixby. 
'  With  arms  ? '  was  asked  by  the  multitude.  He  said  : 
'  We  will  not  say  with  arms ;  but  all  persons  are  re- 
quested to  provide  themselves  with  such  things  as  may 
in  any  way  whatever  be  useful  to  them."1 

Special  constables  were  sworn  in  the  next  day  by 

1  Prentice's  Manchester,  p.  168.         2  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xli.  p.  271. 


CHAP,  xi  WESTMINSTER  ON  PETERLOO  485 

the  magistrates  to  preserve  the  peace  in  the  evening. 
On  Saturday  the  magistrates  added  a  P.S.  to  their 
letter,  and  this  is  a  strange  and  suggestive  part  of  the 
story :  "  The  night  has  passed  over  quietly.  Numbers 
were  seen  returning  to  their  homes  late  at  night,  most 
probably  deterred  from  meeting  by  the  precautions 
taken,  and  by  a  report  circulated  among  the  people,  that 
the  man  who  addressed  them  from  Manchester  was  a 
spy." 

In  London  little  time  was  lost  before  some  of  the 
reformers  met  (on  the  21st)  at  the  Crown  and  Anchor 
Tavern,  and  passed  a  series  of  indignant  resolutions,  and 
invited  London  and  Westminster  to  hold  public  meet- 
ings to  consider  of  the  affair  at  Manchester. 

The  Platform  alone  could  suffice  for  the  expression 
of  their  feelings  in  such  a  crisis ;  and  a  similar  invita- 
tion was  sent  to  Westminster  by  Sir  F.  Burdett,  who 
gave  some  vent  to  his  wrath  in  a  letter,  dated  22d 
August,  to  his  constituents :  "  On  reading  the  news- 
papers this  morning  I  was  filled  with  shame,  grief,  and 
indignation,  at  the  account  of  the  blood  spilled  at  Man- 
chester. This  then  is  the  answer  of  the  borough- 
mongers  to  the  petitioning  people  ;  this  is  the  practical 
proof  of  our  standing  in  no  need  of  reform ;  these  the 
practical  blessings  of  our  glorious  boroughmonger 
domination ;  this  the  use  of  a  standing  army  in  time 
of  peace."1  He  called  on  the  gentlemen  of  England 
"  to  join  the  general  voice,  loudly  demanding  justice 
and  redress,  and  head  public  meetings  throughout  the 
United  Kingdom  to  put  a  stop  in  its  commencement  to 
a  reign  of  terror  and  of  blood,  to  afford  consolation,  as 
far  as  it  can  be  afforded,  and  legal  redress  to  the  widows 
and  orphans  and  mutilated  victims  of  this  unparalleled 

1  See  State  Trials,  New  Series,  vol.  i.  p.  5. 


486         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  11 

"  and  barbarous  outrage.  For  this  purpose  I  propose 
that  a  meeting  should  be  called  in  Westminster." l 
Accordingly,  on  the  2d  September,  a  meeting  was  held 
at  Palace  Yard,  Westminster — 15,000  to  50,000  persons, 
according  to  various  estimates,  being  at  it.  Sir  F. 
Burdett  presided,  and  spoke,  also  Mr.  Hobhouse.  Sir 
F.  Burdett  said :  "  The  question  now  was  as  to  the 
paramount  and  imprescriptible  right  of  the  people  of 
England  to  meet  and  express  their  opinions  upon  the 
political  state  of  the  country.  ...  I  hold  that  to  be  a 
right  not  only  to  Englishmen  but  one  inherent  in  man — 
one  antecedent  to  all  political  institutions,  and  of  which 
no  political  institution  can  justly  deprive  mankind.  .  .  . 

"  The  time  has  now  come  when  from  one  end  of  the 
country  to  the  other  the  people  should  come  forward, 
and  with  one  voice  call  for  a  change  of  Ministers  against 
the  men  who  have  thus  countenanced  the  shedding  of 
blood."  Several  resolutions  were  passed,  among  them 
one,  "  That  the  atrocious  outrage  on  the  defenceless  and 
peaceable  people  against  all  law,  and  in  defiance  of 
justice,  is  an  attempt  to  destroy  by  the  sword  all  the 
yet  remaining  liberties  of  Englishmen  "  ;  another  urging 
the  old  thing — the  necessity  of  Parliamentary  reform ; 
and  others  calling  for  redress  for  those  who  were  injured 
at  Manchester. 

This  was  but  the  beginning  of  the  storm  which  was 
to  blow  about  ministerial  and  royal  ears.  On  the  13th 
September  the  greatest  public  reception  ever  given  to 
a  private  individual  was  accorded  to  Hunt  in  London. 
After  his  arrest  in  Manchester,  where  nothing  less  than 
a  charge  of  high  treason  would  satisfy  the  vindictiveness 

1  In   March   1820    this    letter  was  tenced  to  three  months'  imprisonment 

made    the    subject   of  an   indictment  and  £2000  fine. — See  State  Trials,  New 

against  Sir  F.   Burdett   for  seditious  Series,  vol.  i. 
libel,  and  he  was  convicted  and  sen- 


CHAP,  xi  HUNT'S  RECEPTION  IN  LONDON  487 

of  the  authorities,  it  was  discovered  that  such  a  charge 
was  quite  unsustainable.  They  had,  therefore,  to  con- 
tent themselves  with  charging  him  with  the  minor 
offences  of  unlawful  assembling,  and  seditious  conspiracy, 
and  he  had  been  committed  for  trial,  but  had  been 
released  on  bail,  and  now  came  to  London. 

Tens,  it  is  not  an  exaggeration  to  say  hundreds,  of 
thousands  went  out  to  meet  him.  A  great  procession 
was  formed.  His  progress  through  the  streets  was 
more  enthusiastic  than  any  royal  progress  in  all  the 
annals  of  history  had  ever  been.  The  Times1  estimated 
the  number  of  the  crowds  through  which  he  passed,  or 
by  whom  he  was  accompanied,  as  300,000,  excluding 
the  spectators  in  the  houses.  Arrived  at  his  destination, 
he  made  a  short  speech.  "  He  congratulated  them  upon 
the  state  of  the  cause  of  reform  which  had  been  advanced 
more  by  the  conduct  of  the  Manchester  magistrates,  and 
the  cowardly  Manchester  Yeomanry,  than  it  would 
have  been  by  the  exertions  of  the  people  for  years.  He 
urged  them  strongly  to  preserve  order,  and  not  to  give 
their  enemies  an  opportunity  of  calumniating  them." 
A  great  banquet  followed  in  the  evening,  and  Hunt 
spoke  twice.  "  He  called  on  all  classes  of  reformers  to 
bury  in  oblivion  their  former  causes  of  disagreement, 
and  to  join  hand  and  heart  in  the  great  object  of 
reform. 

"  Every  man  of  common  sense  knew  that  no  party  in 
the  State  could  do  anything  without  the  assistance  of 
the  people,  and  that  the  people  were  now  too  sensible  of 
their  rights  to  be  led  by  the  nose  by  the  sophistical 
declamation  of  interested  individuals."  He  then  gave  a 

o 

toast :  "The  only  source  of  all  legitimate  power  =  the 
people."  The  demonstration  from  beginning  to  end 

1  The  Times,  14th  September  1819. 


488         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

was  a  great  success,  and  was  notable  evidence  of  the 
growing  power  of  the  people  and  of  the  direction  in 
which  their  views  and  sympathies  were  running. 

Two  days  before  this — namely,  on  the  llth  of 
September — the  Common  Council  of  London  met  and 
passed  resolutions,  the  principal  one  directing  that  an 
address  should  be  presented  to  the  Prince  Regent,  pray- 
ing him  "To  institute  an  immediate  and  effectual 
inquiry  into  the  outrages  that  have  been  committed, 
and  to  cause  the  guilty  perpetrators  thereof  to  be 
brought  to  signal  and  condign  punishment."  In  obedi- 
ence to  this  resolution  the  Lord  Mayor,  sheriffs,  etc., 
and  about  fifty  members  of  the  Common  Council,  on  the 
17th  September,  presented  the  Address  to  the  Prince 
Regent  on  his  throne,  surrounded  by  the  Duke  of  Wel- 
lington, Lords  Liverpool,  Sidmouth,  and  Castlereagh. 

The  Prince  Regent's  reply  was  curt  and  hostile, 
devoid  of  any  vestige  of  sympathy,  or  of  any  trace  of 
regret  for  the  unfortunate  people  who  had  lost  their 
lives  or  been  injured  at  Manchester.  "  I  receive  with 
feelings  of  deep  regret  the  Address  and  Petition,"  said 
the  Regent ;  and  he  then  proceeded  to  tell  them  "  they 
were  unacquainted  with  the  circumstances  and  incor- 
rectly informed ;  that  if  the  laws  were  really  violated  on 
that  occasion,  the  ordinary  tribunals  of  the  country 
were  open  for  redress,  and  that  no  inquiry  could  be 
instituted."  The  reply  came  but  badly  from  men  who 
must  of  necessity  themselves  have  been  "  unacquainted 
with  the  circumstances  and  incorrectly  informed  "  when 
they  penned  their  letter  of  approbation  and  "  great 
satisfaction  "  to  the  magistrates. 

The  people,  however,  were  too  wroth  to  be  deterred 
by  any  expressions  of  royal  displeasure,  and  meeting 
followed  meeting. 


CHAP,  xi  THE  PETERLOO  AGITATION  489 

On  the  20th  September  a  large  meeting  was  held  at 
York,  presided  over  by  the  Lord  Mayor,  and  a  proces- 
sion of  some  4000  to  5000  people  paraded  the  streets 
previously  with  banners  and  music.  The  Kecorder  of 
Doncaster  spoke  at  it.  He  claimed  that  the  right  of 
the  people  publicly  to  discuss  State  grievances,  and  to 
Petition,  was  to  be  exercised  at  the  pleasure  of  the 
people  themselves,  unrestrained  so  long  as  disorder  or 
excess  was  not  committed  by  them ;  he  declared  the 
Ministers  unworthy  of  confidence ;  he  expressed  his 
conviction  that  the  call  for  reform  was  neither  local 
nor  temporary,  that  no  Ministers  could  extinguish  it. 
Two  and  a  half  years  ago  meetings  similar  to  these 
now  held  took  place.  The  Habeas  Corpus  Act  was 
suspended,  several  hundred  persons  were  imprisoned, 
a  momentary  check  of  public  declarations  followed, 
but  was  the  principle  checked  ?  By  no  means.  It 
was  invigorated,  and  thus  was  enabled  to  break  out 
again.  One  of  the  members  for  the  city  of  York 
also  spoke,  and  one  of  the  candidates  at  the  last  elec- 
tion ;  several  resolutions  were  passed  condemnatory  of 
the  proceedings  at  Manchester,  and  the  meeting  peace- 
ably dispersed. 

On  the  same  day  a  great  meeting  was  held  at 
Hunslet  Moor ;  there  was  a  large  procession  with  ban- 
ners, and  "every  one  wore  some  black  crape  or  ribbon 
as  a  token  of  mourning  for  the  recent  calamities  at 
Manchester."  Mr.  Mason  spoke.  He  argued  on  the 
necessity  of  a  radical  reform.  "  How  were  they  to 
destroy  the  hydra-corruption  ?  Not  by  violence  and 
tumult,  for  these  she  delights  in ;  here  she  would  be 
more  than  a  match  for  you.  Not  by  the  sword,  for  she 
has  legions  at  command  who  wield  the  murderous  steel. 
Let  reason,  moderation,  and  justice  be  your  weapons, 


490         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"  and  then  she  will  be  foiled,  for  her  myrmidons  are  un- 
skilled in  such  modes  of  warfare."1 

After  several  other  speeches  resolutions  were  adopted 
asking  for  reform,  depicting  the  dreadful  misery  being 
endured  by  the  people,  asserting  their  right  to  meet, 
and  condemning  the  proceedings  of  the  authorities  at 
Manchester. 

The  Mayor  of  Leeds,  evidently  a  pompous,  fussy 
sort  of  individual,  sent  a  report  of  this  meeting  to  the 
Lord  Lieutenant  of  the  county,  who  forwarded  it  to  the 
Government,2  which  is  worth  quoting,  without  comment, 
needing  none.  "  A  man,  of  the  name  of  Chapman,  took 
the  chair ;  some  violent  speeches  were  delivered.  .  .  . 
The  crowd  which  first  appeared  on  Hunslet  Moor  must 
have  infinitely  surpassed  anything  of  the  kind  which 
was  ever  before  known  in  this  place,  but  being  composed 
of  the  vile  and  curious,  as  well  as  the  mischievous,  the 
former  not  finding  attractions  for  them,  they  began, 
together  with  the  women  and  children,  early  to  retire." 

On  the  23d  of  September  a  great  meeting  was  held  at 
Birmingham.  Sir  C.  Wolseley,  the  Legislatorial  Attorney, 
being  present,  and  resolutions  were  adopted  on  the 
subject  of  "the  military  violences,"  and  the  right  of 
meeting  to  petition.  Among  them  were  the  two 
following :  "  That  our  feelings  towards  the  Ministers 
who  have  advised  the  Prince  Regent  to  honour  with  his 
thanks  the  assassins  of  his  people  are  those  of  utter 
abhorrence"3 — as  well  they  might  be.  "That  one 
melancholy  result  of  these  fatal  proceedings  has  been 
the  loss  (on  the  part  of  the  subjects)  of  all  confidence  in 
the  laws  of  the  realm,  and  the  shaking  of  their 
allegiance,  and  that  the  thanks  of  the  Prince  Regent  to 

1  The  Examiner,  p.  614.  8  The  Examiner,  p.  615. 

2  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xli.,  p.  277. 


CHAP,  xi  THE  PETERLOO  AGITATION  491 

those  who  have  committed  an  open  infraction  of  the 
laws,  have  identified  him  with  those  who  were  guilty 
of  it." 

It  is  impossible  here  to  give  details  of  all  the 
meetings  held  at  this  period  in  connection  with  the 
Peterloo  massacre.  Only  a  few  can  be  described  to 
illustrate  the  others,  and  only  sufficient  extracts  from 
the  speeches  and  resolutions  can  be  given  to  show  the 
predominating  ideas  expressed  from  the  Platform,  and 
the  drift  or  direction  of  popular  opinion. 

So  far,  in  this  fresh  uprising  of  the  Platform,  the 
Whigs  and  Whig  leaders  were  taking  little  or  no  part, 
and  had  left  the  people  practically  to  themselves. 
Brougham,  speaking  at  a  dinner  at  Kendal,  said  :  "  He 
was  no  friend  to  the  moving  of  large  bodies  of  people  to 
attend  distant  meetings ;  they  should  meet  at  home, 
and  unnecessary  assemblages,  though  not  unlawful, 
were  better  avoided."  They  accordingly  were  avoided 
by  the  Whigs,  but  "  the  poor  manufacturers,  and  the 
most  enlightened  of  the  middle  classes  made  the  whole 
nation  ring  with  their  defiant  calls  for  justice." 

During  the  rest  of  September  several  meetings  were 
held  in  London,  Cripplegate  Ward,  Farringdon,  Bishops- 
gate,  and  Southwark — all  crying  out  for  reform,  and 
censuring  the  proceedings  of  the  authorities  at  Man- 
chester and  the  Government  for  endorsing  and  upholding 
them. 

At  Nottingham  a  meeting  was  held  on  the  20th 
September,  after  a  procession  with  banners  and  bands, 
and  a  cap  of  liberty;  and  a  couple  of  days  later  a 
meeting  was  held  at  Liverpool,  Lord  Sefton  presiding, 
and  an  inquiry  demanded  into  the  occurrences  at 
Manchester. 

October   saw   no   abatement    of   Platform  activity. 


492         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

On  the  1st  a  large  meeting  was  held  at  Bramley,  near 
Leeds ;  on  the  4th  a  meeting  at  Bristol ;  on  the  same 
day  a  great  meeting  of  some  40,000  near  Halifax.  A 
large  procession  preceded  the  meeting,  with  bands  with 
muffled  drums  playing  the  "  Dead  March  in  Saul,"  and 
"  Scots  wha  hae  wi'  Wallace  bled  ";  several  speeches  were 
made  and  resolutions  passed. 

Among  the  Parliamentary  papers  presented,  and 
subsequently  printed,  in  order  to  influence  the  House,1 
there  is  a  report  of  this  meeting  which  said  :  "  Every 
report  I  receive  justifies  me  in  declaring,  that  more 
than  50,000  persons  were  assembled ;  and  that  most 
of  them  had  something  on  which  they  relied  more  than 
their  sticks ;  some  of  which  were  actually  shouldered, 
being  rather  clubs  than  sticks."  No  proof,  however,  of 
this  allegation  was  offered,  but  it  was  employed  by  the 
Government  to  influence  Parliamentary  opinion  when 
they  came  to  ask.  for  coercive  legislation.  Several 
meetings  were  held  also  in  Scotland,  now  awaking  from 
the  apathy  which  has  been  so  well  described  by  Lord 
Cockburn ;  but,  unfortunately,  both  in  Paisley  and 
Glasgow  the  meetings  resulted  in  subsequent  serious 
rioting. 

On  the  13th  of  October  the  first  regular  "county 
meeting"  was  held.  Cumberland  met,  and  asked  for 
the  early  meeting  of  Parliament  and  an  inquiry.  Two 
members  of  Parliament  and  Brougham  spoke  at  it.  The 
latter  said  nothing  very  noteworthy,  but  Mr.  Curwen, 
M.P.,  made  a  very  sensible  speech,  and  whilst  censuring 
the  Government,  pointed  out  also  the  folly  of  the  people 
in  demanding  such  extreme  reforms  as  Universal 
Suffrage  and  Annual  Parliaments. 

The  county  meeting,   however,    which   excited  the 

1  Hansard's  Parliameiitary  Debates,  vol.  xli.  p.  278. 


CHAP,  xi  DISMISSAL  OF  LORD  FITZWILLIAM  493 

greatest  attention  throughout  the  country,  and  which 
stung  the  Government  more  than  any  other,  was  a 
meeting  of  "  the  independent  inhabitants  of  Yorkshire." 
The  requisition  to  the  High  Sheriff  to  convene  it  was 
signed  by  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  Earl  Fitzwilliam,  Lord 
Lieutenant  of  the  West  Eiding  of  the  county,  Lord 
Cowper,  Lord  Milton,  and  several  other  persons  of  rank 
and  property  and  position  in  the  county — a  different 
class  from  those  who  hitherto  had  been  convening  and 
holding  meetings. 

The  meeting  came  off  on  the  14th  of  October,  and 
was  held  in  the  historic  Castle  Yard  of  York,  the  scene 
of  so  many  meetings  in  favour  of  free  speech  and  public 
discussion.  As  early  as  nine  in  the  morning  large 
parties  arrived  from  distant  places  with  bands  and 
banners.  About  20,000  persons  were  present.  The 
High  Sheriff  took  the  chair.  He  said  he  had  called  the 
meeting  readily  as  he  was  a  friend  to  popular  meetings, 
and  thought  it  was  the  union,  and  not  the  separation  of 
the  great  and  rich  from  the  middling  and  lower  class 
which  would  produce  peace  and  happiness. 

The  Duke  of  Norfolk  addressed  the  meeting,  declaring 
his  sincere  attachment  to  the  people's  rights,  and  moved 
the  resolutions.  "That  it  is  the  undoubted  right  of  the 
people  to  hold  meetings  for  the  purpose  of  considering 
any  matters  of  public  interest ;  that  it  is  a  direct 
violation  of  the  law,  and  an  alarming  invasion  of  the 
rights  of  the  people  to  disperse  by  violence  and  military 
force  a  meeting  legally  assembled  and  peaceably  held 
for  such  purpose ;  that  they  had  learnt  with  unfeigned 
concern  that  a  meeting  at  Manchester  was  suddenly 
attacked  and  dispersed  by  military  force ;  that  they 
had  seen  with  surprise  and  regret  that  the  Kegent  had 
been  advised  by  his  Ministers  to  give  his  royal  approba- 


494         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

"  tion  to  the  interference  of  the  military ;  and  they  prayed 
that  Parliament  might  be  at  once  assembled  and  these 
matters  inquired  into." 

Other  speeches  followed  which  were  "  characterised 
by  fairness  and  moderation,"  the  resolutions  were 
adopted,  Lord  Fitzwilliam,  "  at  the  end  of  the  day's 
business,  with  a  view  of  all  the  circumstances  of  the 
meeting,  proposed  the  thanks  to  the  Sheriff  for 
assembling  it,"  and  the  meeting,  which  had  been 
distinguished  by  the  orderly  and  peaceable  behaviour  of 
the  people,  dispersed. 

Lord  Castlereagh  subsequently  declared,  "  It  was 
the  first  county  meeting  which  had  been  disgraced  with 
all  those  emblems  of  flags  and  drums  which  had  charac- 
terised assemblies  of  a  different  description."1 

The  presence  of  the  Lieutenant  of  the  County  at  a 
public  meeting  of  such  a  character,  and  with  such  an 
object,  was  rather  much  for  the  Government.  Forth- 
with Lord  Sidmouth,  the  Home  Secretary,  wrote  to  the 
Prime  Minister  "  to  call  his  attention  to  the  conduct  of 
Lord  Fitzwilliam,  who  in  the  county  under  his  imme- 
diate charge,  and  in  which  he  represented  his  Majesty, 
had  thought  proper  to  take  the  leading  part  in  as- 
sembling a  meeting  of  the  county,  not  merely  for  the 
purpose  of  arraigning  the  conduct  of  his  Majesty's  Minis- 
ters, but  for  that  also  of  flying  in  the  face  of  the  admoni- 
tion from  the  throne  given  by  the  Regent  upon  receiving 
the  Address  of  the  city  of  London  ;  "2  and  recommending 
his  instant  removal  from  the  Lord-Lieutenancy.  Within 
a  week  from  the  meeting  Lord  Fitzwilliam  was  informed 
that  the  Prince  Regent  had  no  further  occasion  for  his 

1  Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates,  Sidmouth,  by  Dean  Pellew,  vol.  iii.  p. 
vol.  xli.  p.  103.  271 — a  most  one-sided  and  prejudiced 

2  See  Twiss's  Life  of  Lord  Eldon,  work, 
vol.  ii.  p.  347.     See  also  Life  of  Lord 


CHAP,  xi  THE  PETERLOO  AGITATION  495 

services  as  Lord  Lieutenant  of  the  West  Riding  of 
Yorkshire, — was  dismissed,  in  fact,  as  if  he  had  been  a 
subordinate  clerk  in  a  Government  department.  "  This 
was  a  necessary  act  of  insulted  authority,"  complacently 
wrote  the  autocratic  Lord  Sidmouth  to  the  Lord  Chan- 
cellor; but  in  reality  it  was  an  attempt  to  strike  awe 
into  any  of  the  upper  classes  holding  official  appoint- 
ments who  might  have  felt  disposed  to  take  part  in  the 
agitation  against  the  Government. 

All  through  October  meetings  went  on  :  Hull,  Shef- 
field, Glasgow,  the  County  Norfolk,  the  Potteries, 
Leicester,  the  County  Durham,  the  County  West- 
moreland, all  added  their  quota  to  the  volume  of 
indignation  against  the  Government,  or  to  the  cry 
for  Parliamentary  reform. 

At  the  Westmoreland  county  meeting  Brougham 
again  spoke,  and,  referring  to  the  absence  of  the  county 
members  from  it,  he  said :  "It  was  the  duty  of  your 
members  to  attend  this  meeting,  which  had  been  duly 
convened  by  the  High  Sheriff  of  this  county.  They 
were  in  the  neighbourhood.  The  first  place  of  a 
member  of  Parliament  is  the  hustings ;  the  second 
his  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons,  watching  over  the 
interests  of  his  constituents  and  of  the  people  at  large, 
and  they  are  not  worthy  of  being  there  if  they  do  not 
come  and  meet  you  here." 

November  saw  no  cessation  of  the  meetings.  On 
the  8th  of  November  a  large  meeting  was  held  at  Hud- 
dersfield,  after  a  procession,  with  three  bands  and  forty- 
four  banners,  and  seven  caps  of  liberty.  On  the  same 
day  18,000  to  20,000  had  a  meeting  at  Wigan,  con- 
vened by  "  some  low  persons  of  Wigan,"  as  Lord 
Balcarres  wrote  to  Lord  Sidmouth  :  "  The  mob  carried 
eighteen  flags,  with  the  usual  symbols  of  sedition  .  .  . 


496         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"  the   day  passed  away   with   the   greatest   order    and 
tranquillity."1 

On  the  15th  of  November  a  meeting  was  held  at 
Habergham  Eves,  near  Burnley,  "  to  consider  the  best 
means  of  bringing  the  instigators  and  perpetrators  of  the 
late  Manchester  massacre  to  justice,  and  to  embrace  the 
subject  of  the  necessity  of  Parliamentary  reform."2 

Placards  had  been  issued  that  such  a  meeting  was  to 
be  held.  The  magistrates  prohibited  it,  but  neverthe- 
less it  came  off.  Bodies  of  men,  to  the  number  of 
several  thousands,  many  of  them  carrying  sticks, 
marched  with  banners  and  music  to  the  meeting. 

"During  the  meeting  a  cry  was  raised  that  soldiers 
were  coming  to  disperse  it ;  whereupon  many  persons 
drew  forth  pikeheads  which  they  had  concealed,  and 
some  began  to  screw  the  pikeheads  on  staves.  Some 
also  produced  pistols."  This  happened  twice.  John 
Knight  presided.  He  ascended  the  hustings  "with  a 
cap  of  liberty  on  his  head,"  and  opened  the  proceedings. 
To  take  the  description  from  the  speech  of  Serjeant 
Scarlett,  who  afterwards  prosecuted  him  :  "  Around  him 
were  assembled  eight  or  nine  thousand  persons  of  the 
lowest  order — I  mean  low  in  the  point  of  fortune — 
persons  who  are  destined  to  obtain  their  livelihood  by 
the  work  of  their  hands,  and  therefore,  though  entitled 
to  all  the  rights  the  richest  men  can  claim,  yet  not 
entitled  by  their  education  to  take  any  part  in  politics."3 

Several  resolutions  were  passed.  One  against  the 
Corn  Laws  ;  another  in  condemnation  of  the  Manchester 
magistrates ;  another  that  they  should  resist  any  mea- 
sures of  the  Government  if  they  brought  in  Bills  to 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xii.  p.  8  Ibid.,  New  Series,   p.    537.      See 
296.  Speech   of   Serjeant  Scarlett,   counsel 

2  State   Trials,  vol.  i.   p.  530,  New  for  the  Crown. 
Series. 


CHAP,  xi         GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  AGITATION  497 

curtail  the  liberty  of  meeting  to  discuss  political  sub- 
jects. Knight  said  the  Ministers  were  going  to  pass 
Bills  to  prevent  such  persons  as  could  think  and  durst 
speak  of  their  tyranny  and  oppression ;  to  pass  Bills  to 
gag  the  mouths  of  such  persons.  After  his  speech  some 
resolutions  were  passed,  and  he  then  dissolved  the  meet- 
ing and  told  the  people  to  go  home  peaceably  and  quietly. 
And  they  went  home  peaceably  and  quietly.  Indeed, 
excepting  two  or  three  meetings  in  Scotland,  all  these 
meetings  were  remarkable  for  peace  and  order.  There 
had  been  no  disturbance  of  any  kind  by  the  people.  On 
this  score  the  Government  had  no  excuse  for  interference, 
A  contemporary  writer  forcibly  and  truly  pointed  this  out. 

"  The  meetings  now  holding  in  England  show  that 
both  the  numbers  and  the  conduct  of  these  radical  re- 
formers raise  them  far  above  contempt.  We  see  40,000  to 
50,000  persons  assemble  at  one  place  without  those 
natural  leaders  whose  presence  might  be  supposed 
necessary  to  the  preservation  of  order ;  they  meet  under  a 
strong  sense  of  wrongs  and  insults,  yet  they  conduct  their 
proceedings  with  a  degree  of  temper  and  decorum  not 
exceeded  in  the  best  ordered  societies.  .  .  .  We  doubt 
if  there  is  another  country  in  the  world  where  such 
masses  of  people  could  meet  without  mobbing  and 
outrage ;  and  perhaps  the  superior  intelligence,  self- 
command,  and  steady  conduct  of  the  lower  classes  of 
England  were  never  before  so  strikingly  exemplified.  As- 
for  the  strong  language  they  employ,  and  the  unlimited 
reforms  they  demand,  we  consider  that  they  have  been 
provoked  into  them ;  and  that  new  plans  of  coercion  will 
only  inflame  them  to  a  greater  degree  of  violence."  1 

The  Government,  however,  was  alarmed,  or  professed 
itself  alarmed,  at  all  these  meetings,  and  the  condition 

1  See  The  Scotsman,  16th  October  1819. 


498        THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

of  the  country  was  deemed  to  necessitate  the  earlier 
assembling  of  Parliament.  Accordingly,  on  the  23d  of 
November,  Parliament  met.  The  Regent  informed  both 
Houses  that  "  The  seditious  practices  so  long  prevalent 
in  some  of  the  manufacturing  districts  of  the  country 
have  been  continued  with  increased  activity  since  you 
were  last  assembled  in  Parliament.  They  have  led  to 
proceedings  incompatible  with  the  public  tranquillity, 
and  with  the  peaceful  habits  of  the  industrious  classes 
of  the  community  ;  and  a  spirit  is  now  fully  manifested 
utterly  hostile  to  the  Constitution  of  this  kingdom,  and 
aiming  not  only  at  a  change  of  those  political  institu- 
ions  which  have  hitherto  constituted  the  pride  and 
security  of  this  country,  but  at  the  subversion  of  the 
rights  of  property  and  of  all  order  in  society.  I  have 
given  directions  that  the  necessary  information  on  this 
subject  shall  be  laid  before  you,  and  I  feel  it  to  be  my 
indispensable  duty  to  press  on  your  immediate  attention 
the  consideration  of  such  measures  as  may  be  requisite 
for  the  counteraction  and  suppression  of  a  system  which, 
if  not  effectually  checked,  may  bring  confusion  and  ruin 
on  the  nation." 

The  first  announcement  of  the  Government  was  that 
of  their  determination  to  refuse  the  inquiry  asked  for 
into  the  Manchester  catastrophe.  The  question  came 
up  in  an  amendment  to  the  Address  moved  by  Tierney, 
when  150  voted  for  the  amendment,  and  381  against  it. 
During  the  debate  a  very  interesting  episode  occurred, 
in  which  the  rival  claims  of  Parliament  and  the  Plat- 
form came  into  competition.  Canning,  dealing  with  the 
request  for  the  Parliamentary  inquiry,  did  his  utmost  to 
disparage  the  Platform — somewhat  ungrateful  conduct 
on  his  part,  as  he  was  very  fond  of  having  frequent 
recourse  to  it  himself  for  his  own  purposes. 


CHAP,  xi    CANNING  ON  THE  PETERLOO  AGITATION          499 

"  Let  us,"  he  said,  "  see  on  what  grounds  they  had 
rested  this  call  for  Parliamentary  inquiry" ;  and  he  quoted 
resolutions  passed  at  a  lot  of  meetings  held  after  that  at 
Manchester  on  the  16th  of  August,  nearly  all  affirming 
the  legality  of  that  meeting.  "There  were  abundance 
of  other  resolutions  affirming  the  same  opinion,  with 
more  or  less  confidence,  but  he  had  troubled  the  House 
with  instances  enough  to  show  the  general  prevalence 
of  the  notion  that  the  meeting  at  Manchester  was  a  legal 
meeting.1 

"  Now,  as  these  resolutions  turned  out  to  have  been 
founded  in  mistake,  was  it  not  to  be  fairly  presumed 
that  the  meetings  had,  under  an  entire  misconception, 
come  to  decisions  which  they  themselves  would  now 
admit  to  be  no  longer  maintainable  ? 

"But  it  was  not  in  matters  of  law  only  that  the 
meetings  in  the  country  appeared  to  have  been  misled. 
It  was  impossible  to  overlook  those  flagrant  misrepre- 
sentations of  fact  by  which  the  public  mind  had  been 
worked  up  to  a  fearful  state  of  irritation.  ...  It 
was  alleged  that  the  magistrates  of  Manchester  were 
necessarily  actuated  by  hostile  feelings  towards  the 
people,  from  the  circumstances  of  their  being  generally 
'master-manufacturers.'  It  had  been  stated  that  the 
sabres  of  the  cavalry  were  sharpened  with  a  view  to  the 
conflict  on  the  16th  of  August.  'There  was  another 
report — a  woman  said  to  have  been  saved  by  an  officer 
of  dragoons  from  the  barbarous  rage  of  the  Yeomanry 
cavalry.'  All  these  allegations  were  untrue. 

"  Deduct,  therefore,  the  amount  of  the  impression 
made  by  these  and  an  abundance  of  other  similar 
fables ;  deduct  the  effect  of  the  persuasion  that  the 
Manchester  meeting  was  a  legal  meeting ;  and  then 

1  Hansard,  vol.  xli.  p.  199. 


SOQ        THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

"judge  whether  public  meetings,  proceeding  to  discussion 
under  such  influences,  could  have  decided  with  equity 
and  temper ;  whether  we  should  not  do  those  meetings 
the  greatest  possible  injustice  if  we  were  to  imagine  that 
they  would,  under  better  information,  persevere  in  deci- 
sions so  unfairly  and  surreptitiously  obtained.  No,  sir ; 
it  is  not  till  all  the  meetings  which  assembled  during 
the  prevalence  of  these  mistakes  and  delusions  shall 
have  re-assembled,  and  re-resolved  all  their  resolutions 
with  the  full  knowledge  that  the  Manchester  meeting 
was  illegal,  that  the  magistrates  were  not  master-manu- 
facturers, that  the  swords  of  the  Yeomanry  were  not 
sharpened  with  a  view  to  the  16th  of  August,  and  that 
the  horrible  story  about  the  woman  and  the  Yeomanry 
was  not  true,  that  we  can  have  a  pretence  for  granting 
a  Parliamentary  inquiry  on  the  ground  that  the  country 
demands  it." 

Brougham,  in  reply,  stated  that  "  Some  errors  and 
some  falsehoods  must  always  appear  on  questions  dis- 
cussed with  so  much  interest  by  the  people  of  this 
country." l 

Doubtless  one  of  the  dangers  of  the  Platform  is 
impulsiveness,  and  consequently  probable  error.  But 
if  the  Platform  sinned  in  this  case,  the  Ministers  who 
accused  it  sinned  far  worse. 

If  the  Platform  was  to  be  condemned  for  false  state- 
ments, what  condemnation  would  Ministers  be  worthy 
of  if  they  made  inaccurate  statements  ?  Should  they 
not  have  recast  their  policy,  and  re-resolved  their  deter- 
minations ?  The  expose  of  the  Ministers  was  not  made 
until  March,  when  The  Times 2  wrote  an  article  on  the 
trial  of  Hunt,  Bamford,  and  others.  But  that  expose 
was  complete  :  "  It  is  now  perfectly  clear  that  every- 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xli.  p.  223.  2  30th  March  1820. 


CHAP. xi  GOVERNMENT  PAPERS  ON  STATE  OF  COUNTRY   501 

thing  which  was  stated  in  the  House  of  Commons 
respecting  the  riotous  character  of  the  Manchester  meet- 
ing by  Lord  Castlereagh,  the  Solicitor -General,  and 
other  honourable  members  was  totally  and  absolutely 
false ;  it  was  directly  opposed  to  truth ;  it  does  not 
appear  to  have  even  had  verisimilitude,  or  probability 
in  its  favour.  .  .  . 

"  If  the  future  student  take  up  Parliamentary  his- 
tory, he  will  find  in  the  speeches  of  Ministers  readings 
of  -  Riot  Acts  —  magistrates  trampled  on  —  Yeomanry 
assaulted,  hooted,  unhorsed — waggon  loads  of  stones — 
forests  of  bludgeons — not  one  tittle  of  which  has  any 
existence  or  place  in  the  State  trial.  What  will 
Ministers  do  \  They  must  either  destroy  every  record 
of  their  speeches,  or  cancel  every  publication  of  the  late 
trial,  by  which  all  their  statements  are  dissipated  and 
reduced  to  nothing,  or  else  they  will  stand  recorded  for 
ever  as  having  solemnly  averred  in  the  House  of  Legis- 
lature that  which  was  found  in  a  court  of  justice  to  be 
totally  untrue." 

On  the  whole,  it  must,  I  think,  be  admitted  that 
the  Platform  emerged  far  more  creditably  out  of  this 
contest  than  did  the  Ministers. 

The  demand  for  the  inquiry  having  been  negatived, 
the  Government  proceeded  to  the  more  serious  business 
suggested  in  the  Regent's  speech.  The  information  laid 
before  the  House  did  not,  this  time,  come  in  a  green 
bag,  nor,  wonderful  to  relate,  were  any  Secret  Com- 
mittees asked  for.  There  were,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  no 
secret  proceedings  which  could  have  afforded  an  excuse 
for  following  the  familiar  precedent.  Everything  the 
Government  could  complain  of  was  open  and  above 
board,  and  was  visible  to  all  men.  The  papers  on 
which  the  Government  was  going  to  found  an  applica- 


502         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

tion  to  Parliament  for  extraordinary  powers  had  accord- 
ingly to  be  presented  publicly  to  Parliament.  They 
consisted  mostly  of  letters  from  magistrates  and  others, 
describing  some  of  these  meetings  of  which  I  have 
already  given  an  account.  Some  of  the  letters  were 
embellished  with  innuendoes  that  the  people  attending 
the  meetings  were  all  formidably  armed,  and  others  of 
them  gave  expression  to  the  fears  of  the  writers  as  to 
the  imminence  of  revolution.  The  papers  contained 
further  some  "examinations,"  with  names  attached, 
stating  that  illegal  drilling  was  being  practised  in  some 
districts ;  also  a  larger  number  of  similar  "  examina- 
tions" from  nameless  individuals,  such  as  X.Y.  or  Y.Z., 
about  pikes,  and  meant  to  be  suggestive  of  the  whole 
population  being  armed  and  ripe  for  revolution.  For 
instance,  among  them  was  one  from  P.Q.,  "upon  oath," 
"That  about  a  fortnight  ago  he  received  orders  from 
several  persons  to  make  about  twenty  pikes,  but  he  did 
not  make  them,  nor  does  he  know  the  persons  who 
ordered  them.  That  he  believes  he  could  have  had 
orders  for  one  hundred  pikes  if  he  had  chosen  to  accept 
the  order." l 

Many  of  the  letters  were  written  in  an  evident  state 
of  panic,  and  were  exaggerated  and  emotional  in  expres- 
sion, and  evidently  untrustworthy,  whilst  much  of  the 
other  information  was  mere  hearsay. 

As  an  instance  of  panic,  the  following  extract  from  a 
letter  to  Lord  Sidmouth  may  be  quoted,  dated  Man- 
chester, 21st  October:  "From  every  quarter  the 
universal  information  and  opinion  is,  that  the  people 
are  in  a  great  measure  armed,  and  are  continually,  and 
as  quickly  as  possible,  and  as  extensively  arming.  It  is 
strongly  surmised  that  pikes  have  been,  and  are,  sent 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xli.  p.  280. 


CHAP,  xi  THE  SIX  ACTS  503 

from  Birmingham  in  boxes ;  I  fear  also  it  is  but  too 
true  that  many  hundreds  of  small-priced  pistols  have 
been  sold  in  this  town  within  a  very  short  period,  and 
that  the  lower  classes  are  purchasing  them  in  great 
numbers." l 

These  letters,  manifestly  exaggerated  as  they  were> 
and  these  "  examinations,"  utterly  untrustworthy  and 
worthless  as  they  were,  were  nevertheless  deemed 
sufficient  ground  by  the  Government  to  ask  for 
stringent  legislation ;  but  much  evidence  was  not 
required  where  there  was  an  autocratic  Government 
anxious  to  maintain  the  abuses  on  which  it  throve, 
and  endeavouring  at  all  costs  to  stem  the  tide  of 
popular  progress,  and  a  servile  mechanical  Parlia- 
mentary majority  with  the  same  interests,  and  ready 
to  obey  all  behests. 

The  Government  at  once  proceeded  to  the  congenial 
task  of  introducing  the  measures  they  considered  requisite 
to  silence  public  discussion. 

The  crisis  of  1795  had  necessitated  "two  Acts" 
to  meet  it.  That  of  1817  had  necessitated  "four 
Acts."  The  crisis  of  1819  was  deemed  to  require  "  six 
Acts."  Such  was  the  progressive  rate  of  increase  of 
despotism  under  a  Tory  Government  and  an  unreformed 
Parliament. 

These  "  six  Acts  "  were — 

(1)  An  Act  to  prevent  the  training  of  persons  to 
the  use  of  arms,  and  to  the  practice  of  military  evolu- 
tions and  exercise ; 

(2)  An  Act  to  authorise  Justices  of  the  Peace,  in 
certain   disturbed   counties,   to  seize   and  detain  arms 
collected  or  kept  for  purposes  dangerous  to  the  public 
peace ; 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xli.  p.  283. 


504         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

(3)  An  Act  to  prevent  delay  in  the  administration 
of  justice  in  cases  of  misdemeanour ; 

(4)  An  Act  for  more  effectually  preventing  seditious 
meetings  and  assemblies  ; 

(5)  An  Act  for  the  more  effectual  prevention  and 
punishment  of  blasphemous  and  seditious  libels  ;  and 

(6)  An  Act  to  subject  certain  publications  to  the 
duties  of  stamps  upon  newspapers,  etc.1 

With  five  of  these,  whose  titles  sufficiently  explain 
their  nature,  we  need  not  concern  ourselves  here,  none 
of  them  directly  affecting  the  Platform.  The  remaining 
one — namely,  the  Seditious  Meetings  and  Assemblies 
Prevention  Act — was  aimed  altogether  at  the  Platform, 
and  was  by  far  the  most  important  of  this  whole  code 
of  repressive  legislation. 

It  requires  therefore  detailed  treatment.  But  before 
proceeding  to  the  consideration  of  its  provisions,  it  is 
desirable  to  understand  clearly  what  practically  was  the 
claim  being  put  forward  by  the  people  as  to  the  right 
of  public  meeting  and  Platform  discussion — put  forward, 
not  in  formal  words,  but  in  deeds  and  acts. 

The  case  has  been  best  stated  in  the  contemporary 
work  of  an  opponent  of  the  popular  party — a  certain 
irascible  Tory  ex-Chief  Justice  of  Ceylon,  named  Sir 
C.  E.  Carrington.  He  wrote :  "  A  right,  it  seems,  is 
claimed  and  exercised  by  those  who  style  themselves 
radical  reformers,  to  assemble  the  people  by  public 
notification,  upon  any  public  occasion,  at  any  time, 
in  any  place,  and  in  any  numbers,  and  to  propose 
such  subjects  of  petition,  remonstrance,  deliberation, 
or  resolution,  to  the  acclamation  and  consent  of  the 
assemblage  thus  brought  together,  as  they  may  think 
fit.  In  a  country  governed  by  law,  with  a  Eepresenta- 

1  Respectively  60  Geo.  III.  caps.  1,  2,  4,  6,  8,  and  9, 


CHAP,  xi     THE  PEOPLE'S  CLAIMS  TO  PUBLIC  MEETINGS     505 

tive  Body  to  watch  over  the  interests  of  the  people, 
have  the  demagogues  of  the  present  day  the  right  they 
so  loudly  assert  and  so  perilously  exercise  ?  .  .  . 

"It  is  said  that  the  people  do  not,  in  their  mgdern 
meetings,  mean  to  petition  or  to  remonstrate  either  to 
the  Crown,  or  to  Parliament,  and  that  to  them  con- 
sequently the  Acts  of  Parliament  regulating  that  right 
are  inapplicable.  Petition  and  remonstrance  are  pre- 
sumed by  the  agitators  of  the  present  day  to  be  unavail- 
ing, and  it  is  asserted  that  it  is  the  birthright  of  the 
subjects  of  Great  Britain  to  assemble  at  the  requisition 
of  any  private  individual,  to  take  into  public  considera- 
tion or  discussion  any  public  topic ;  and  to  collect  and 
promulge  the  sense  of  the  meeting,  in  the  shape  of 
resolutions,  addresses,  or  appeals  to  the  people  at  large. 

"  This  right,  exercised  as  it  has  been,  I  deny.  The 
right  itself  of  petition  to  the  Legislature  can,  we  have 
seen,  be  exercised  only  under  the  observance  of  certain 
forms.  And  shall  a  much  wider  range  of  public  con- 
vocation and  public  discussion,  unauthorised  by  any 
recognised  authority,  be  set  loose  from  all  forms,  and 
permitted  to  invoke,  not  the  Crown,  not  either  House 
of  Parliament,  in  the  respectful  tone  of  petition  or  com- 
plaint, but  to  breathe  the  language  of  censure,  of  defi- 
ance, and  contempt,  not  of  men  or  of  measures  only,  but 
of  the  Constitution  itself,  and  to  conjure  up  the  spirits 
of  the  mob  by  the  unhallowed  incantations  of  every 
self-elected  demagogue  ? 

"  The  radical  reformers  summon  the  people  to  meet 
as  a  deliberative  assembly  to  express  their  decision  on 
public  measures,  their  resolutions  on  subjects  of  assumed 
right,  or  of  political  expediency ;  they  thunder  from 
their  hustings  their  frantic  anathemas  against  the  present 
order  of  things  ;  they  issue  their  fiat  for  a  change,  and 


$o6        THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  u 

"range  the  votes  and  acclamations  of  their  votaries  in 
array  against  the  ancient  and  legitimate  authorities  of 
the  country,  and  against  the  Constitution  itself;  .  .  . 
they  resort  to  a  code  of  abstract  rights,  created  and 
defined  by  themselves,  and,  as  they  contend,  impre- 
scriptible, unalienable,  to  be  denied  or  impeded  only  by 
slaves  and  tyrants.  .  .  .  What  I  is  our  Constitution,  the 
labour  and  the  pride  of  ages,  so  vitally  unsound  as  to 
cherish  and  organise,  and  keep  in  perpetual  action, 
within  itself,  the  elements  of  its  own  destruction  ?  .  .  . 
Does  the  Legislature  admit  and  sanction  an  extraneous, 
appellate  jurisdiction,  to  correct,  control,  or  vituperate 
its  measures,  and  to  deny  its  authority  in  public  assem- 
blies, called  for  that  purpose  at  the  pleasure  of  every 
popular  declaimer  ?  I  trust  that  the  Constitution  of  this 
mighty  kingdom  is  not  thus  impeachable  of  folly. 

"The  convocation  by  any  private  individual  of  a 
public  assembly,  unlimited  in  point  of  numbers,  to 
deliberate  on  public  measures,  and  redress  of  grievances, 
real  or  pretended,  is  illegal."  l 

Thistlewood,  looking  at  the  question  from  diametric- 
ally the  opposite  side,  had  stated  in  a  document  which 
he  had  published,  "  That  he  knew  of  no  law  that  could 
prevent  1000,  10,000,  100,000,  or  even  1,000,000  of 
persons  from  assembling,  and  no  magistrate  could  touch 
them  till  they  struck  some  blow,  and  that  it  made  no 
difference  whether  they  met  with  or  without  arms,  with 
or  without  flags,  etc."2 

Lord  Sidmouth,  the  Home  Secretary,  speaking  as  a 
member  of  the  Government,  acknowledged  that,  "  As 
the  law  now  stood,  any  individual  might  issue  his 

1  See    "An  Inquiry  into   the  Law  2  See     Lord    Castlereagh's    speech, 

Relative  to  Public  Assemblies  of  the  Parliamentary    Debates,  vol.    xli.    p. 

People,"    by   Sir   C.    E.    Carringtou,  384. 
London,  1819. 


CHAP,  xi         LORD  CASTLEREAGH  ON  MEETINGS  507 

mandate  to  bring  together  all  the  idle  and  curious  part 
of  the  population  of  the  country  at  any  time,  or  in  any 
place  he  pleased.  The  persons  who  called  these  meet- 
ings considered  themselves  empowered  (whether  legally 
or  not  was  not  at  present  the  question)  to  attend  them 
with  martial  music,  flags,  and  banners."  l 

This,  in  reality,  was  the  point  of  the  matter.  That 
the  people,  regardless  of  the  old  set  forms  of  county 
meetings  or  borough  meetings,  of  requisitions  and  con- 
venings  by  the  High  Sheriff  or  other  notable,  should 
meet  where,  when,  and  how  they  pleased,  and  should 
discuss  what  they  liked,  and  say  what  they  liked,  and 
set  themselves  up  as  critics  of  Government',  was  more 
than  could  be  borne,  at  least  at  that  time.  The  fury 
of  the  Government  was  unbounded.  Criticism  from 
the  Platform  had  been  at  all  times  hard  to  bear,  even 
when  it  was  restricted  to  that  very  limited  class,  the 
"  freeholders " ;  but  when  the  Platform  had  reached  a 
lower  strata  of  society,  which  set  itself  up  as  having  an 
interest,  a  share,  a  stake  in  the  country,  and  therefore 
as  entitled  to  the  rights  of  free  men  and  citizens,  and 
when  Tory  privileges  and  emoluments  and  monopolies 
were  endangered,  Tory  pride  blazed  up,  and  the  move- 
ment must  be  crushed. 

Lord  Castlereagh  declared  that  the  meetings  were 
tumultuous  (though  the  only  tumult  in  England  had 
been  caused  by  the  representatives  of  the  Government 
themselves  at  Manchester  dispersing  a  "  peaceable  and 
orderly  "  meeting),  that  they  were  quite  an  innovation 
upon  all  the  habits,  customs,  and  prejudices  of  the 
country,  that  they  were  borrowed  from  the  worst  days 
of  France,  and  had  conduced  most  essentially  to  the 
progress  of  the  Revolution  in  that  country.2 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xli.p.  345.  8  Ibid.,  p.  383. 


5o8         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

It  is,  however,  not  from  a  speech  in  any  of  the 
debates  on  the  subject,  but  from  one  delivered  soon 
after,  on  an  occasion  when  free  rein  was  given  to 
language,  that  the  views  of  the  Government  are  best 
seen.  Canning  delivered  himself  of  a  Platform  oration 
at  Liverpool  early  in  the  next  year,  and  said : l 
"A  certain  number  of  ambulatory  tribunes  of  the 
people,  self-elected  to  that  high  function,  assumed  the 
name  and  authority  of  whatever  place  they  thought 
proper  to  select  for  a  place  of  meeting ;  their  rostrum 
was  pitched,  sometimes  here,  sometimes  there,  according 
to  the  fancy  of  the  mob,  or  the  patience  of  the  magis- 
trates ;  but  the  proposition  and  the  proposer  were  in  all 
places  nearly  alike ;  and  when,  by  a  sort  of  political 
ventriloquism,  the  same  voice  had  been  made  to  issue 
from  half  a  dozen  different  corners  of  the  country,  it 
was  impudently  assumed  to  be  a  concord  of  sweet 
sounds,  composing  the  united  voice  of  the  people  of 
England.  .  .  . 

"  It  is  no  part  of  the  contrivance  of  the  laws  that 
immense  multitudes  should  wantonly  be  brought  to- 
gether, month  after  month,  and  day  after  day,  in  places 
where  the  very  bringing  together  of  a  multitude  is  of 
itself  the  source  of  terror  and  of  danger.  It  is  no  part  of 
the  provision  of  the  laws,  nor  is  it  in  the  spirit  of  them, 
that  such  multitudes  should  be  brought  together  at 
the  will  of  unauthorised  and  irresponsible  individuals, 
changing  the  scene  of  the  meeting  as  may  suit  their 
caprice  or  convenience,  and  fixing  it  where  they  have 
neither  property,  nor  domicile,  nor  connection.  .  .  . 
It  is  not  in  consonance  but  in  contradiction  to  the 
spirit  of  the  law  that  such  meetings  have  been  holden. 
The  law  prescribes  a  corporate  character.  The  callers 

1  Therry's  Canning,  vol.  vL  p.  369. 


CHAP,  xi         CANNING  ON  PLATFORM  AGITATION  509 

of  these  meetings  have  always  studiously  avoided  it. 
No  summons  of  freeholders,  none  of  freemen,  none  of 
the  inhabitants  of  particular  places  or  parishes,  no 
acknowledgment  of  local  or  political  classification.  .  .  . 

"To  bring  together  the  inhabitants  of  a  particular 
division,  or  men  sharing  a  common  franchise,  is  to 
bring  together  an  assembly,  of  which  the  component 
parts  act  with  some  respect  and  awe  of  each  other. 
Ancient  habits,  preconceived  attachments,  that  mutual 
respect  which  makes  the  eye  of  a  neighbour  a  security 
for  each  man's  good  conduct — all  these  things  make  men 
difficult  to  be  moved,  on  the  sudden,  to  any  extravagant 
and  violent  enterprise.  But  bring  together  a  multitude 
of  individuals,  having  no  permanent  relation  to  each 
other,  no  common  tie,  but  what  arises  from  their  con- 
currence as  members  of  that  meeting,  a  tie  dissolved  as 
soon  as  the  meeting  is  at  an  end, — in  such  an  aggrega- 
tion of  individuals  there  is  no  such  mutual  respect, 
no  such  check  upon  the  proceedings  of  each  man 
from  the  awe  of  his  neighbour's  disapprobation ; 
and  if  ever  a  multitudinous  assembly  can  be  wrought 
up  to  purposes  of  mischief,  it  will  be  an  assembly  so 
composed.1 

"  How  monstrous  is  it  to  confound  such  meetings 
with  the  genuine  and  recognised  modes  of  collecting  the 
sense  of  the  English  people  !  Was  it  by  meetings  such 
as  these  that  the  Revolution  was  brought  about  ?  Was 
it  by  meetings  in  St.  George's  Fields  ?  in  Spa  Fields  ? 
in  Smithfield  ?  Was  it  by  untold  multitudes  collected 
in  a  village  in  the  north  ?  No  !  it  was  by  the  meeting 
of  corporations,  in  their  corporate  capacity ;  by  the 
assembly  of  recognised  bodies  of  the  State ;  by  the 
interchange  of  opinions  among  portions  of  the  com- 

1  Therry's  Canning,  vol.  vi.  p.  378. 


5io         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

"  munity  known  to  each  other,  and  capable  of  estimating 
each  other's  views  and  characters.  .  .  . 

"  I  have  always  heard  that  British  liberty  was 
established  long  before  the  commencement  of  the  late 
reign  ; 1  nay,  that  in  the  late  reign,  according  to  popular 
politicians,  it  rather  sunk  and  retrograded ;  and  yet, 
never  till  that  reign  was  such  an  abuse  of  popular 
meetings  dreamt  of,  much  less  erected  into  a  right, 
not  to  be  questioned  by  magistrates,  and  not  to  be 
controlled  by  Parliament." 

From  speeches  in  both  Houses  of  Parliament,  it 
appears  that  other  speakers  shared  these  views,  express- 
ing at  the  same  time  alarm. 

Plunket  said:  "  If  bodies  of  the  people  not  convened 
by  any  public  functionary,  but  called  together  by 
mountebanks  whose  only  title  was  their  impudence  and 
folly,  were  entitled  to  assemble  in  tens  of  thousands ;  to 
march  with  banners  displayed,  in  military  array,  into 
the  hearts  of  populous  cities ;  and  if  the  laws  were  not 
competent  to  assure  the  people  of  this  country  against 
the  panic  and  dismay  excited  by  such  proceedings,  there 
was  an  end  of  the  Constitution."2 

One  member  of  the  House  of  Commons  "  appealed 
to  the  common  sense  of  every  man  who  heard  him, 
whether  the  expression  of  the  public  voice  was  possible 
to  be  obtained  at  these  screaming,  howling,  hallooing 
meetings.  Could  any  discussion,  any  deliberation,  any 
fair  impartial  decision,  result  from  such  assemblages  ? " 

One  member  of  the  House  of  Lords — his  name  is  best 
left  in  oblivion — said,  "  He  did  not  think  these  meetings 
could  be  called  meetings  of  the  people  of  England.  He 
considered  them  altogether  as  a  wretched  babel,  as  a  set 

1  The  reign   of   George   III.      TLe          a  Parliamentary  Debates,    vol.    xlL 
speech  was  made  shortly   after  that       p.  131. 
sovereign's  death. 


CHAP,  xi      MR.  SCARLETT  ON  PUBLIC  ASSEMBLIES  511 

of  vagabonds.  It  would,  indeed,  be  the  prostitution  of 
language  to  characterise  such  wretches  as  the  people  of 
England.  .  .  .  The  meetings  were  calculated  to  sap  the 
spirit  of  loyalty,  of  morality,  and  of  religion,  and 
altogether  to  subvert  our  laws  and  our  liberties." 

The  Whig  leaders  even  joined  in  condemning  them. 
Even  Lord  Erskine,  in  the  preface  to  his  pamphlet, 
"  The  Defences  of  the  Whigs,"  wrote :  "  But  holding 
sacred  as  I  do  the  never-to-be-surrendered  privilege  of 
British  subjects  to  assemble  peaceably  to  express  to  each 
other,  and  to  the  Government  of  the  country,  their 
opinions  and  complaints,  yet  I  feel  no  difficulty  in  say- 
ing that  nothing  can  be  more  obviously  useless  and 
mischievous  than  the  assembling  of  immense  multitudes, 
not  in  their  own  communities  or  neigbourhood,  but 
moving  upon  other  thronged  and  agitated  districts. 
Such  meetings,  however  legal  they  may  be,  cannot  but 
be  dangerous  to  the  industrious  poor,  collected  at  a 
distance  from  their  own  homes,  only  to  disturb  the  in- 
dustry of  others,  aggravating  the  sufferings  of  poverty 
by  the  interruption  of  employment,  by  the  hazard  of 
fatal  accidents,  and  the  probable  temptation  to  crimes." 

Some  additional  light  is  thrown  on  the  views  pre- 
vailing at  this  time  in  the  official  or  governmental 
spheres  by  the  speech  of  Mr.  Scarlett,1  when  conducting 
the  prosecution  of  Henry  Hunt  for  attending  the  Man- 
chester meeting.  He  said  : 2  "It  is  undoubtedly  the 
privilege  of  the  people  of  England,  stating  the  proposi- 
tion broadly,  and  in  an  unqualified  manner,  to  meet  to 
consider  of  public  grievances,  and  to  seek  the  lawful 
means  of  redress.  But  the  meetings  of  that  description 
known  to  the  Constitution,  and  known  to  the  practice  of 
former  ages,  have  been  meetings  either  of  counties  or  of 

1  Afterwards  Lord  Chief  Baron.       J  State  Trials,  vol.  i.  p.  180,  New  Series. 


512         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

"  towns,  of  corporations,  of  particular  districts,  or  of 
particular  classes  of  individuals  united  by  one  common 
interest  in  the  pursuit  of  one  common  object.  .  .  . 
But  I  never  heard  it  yet  stated  by  any  lawyer,  and  I 
trust  I  shall  never  hear  it  decided  by  any  judge,  that  it 
is  a  part,  or  ever  was  a  part,  of  the  law  and  constitution 
of  this  land  that  any  individuals,  be  they  who  they  may, 
should  have  a  right  to  assemble  all  the  people  of 
England  in  one  place,  there  to  discuss  public  grievances 
or  the  nature  of  the  Constitution,  and  to  come  to 
resolutions  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  redress  or 
alteration. 

"I  will  tell  you,  shortly  and  plainly,  why  that 
never  can  be  the  law  of  any  country.  No  man  can 
deny  that  the  great  physical  force  of  every  community 
lies  in  the  mass  of  the  people  when  assembled.  Those 
who  maintain  the  most  popular  principles  of  govern- 
ment and  constitutional  law,  and  who  admit  or  contend 
that  all  power  and  all  right  are  derived  from  resolutions 
of  the  people  at  large,  they,  above  all  others,  must  be 
obliged  to  contend  that  when  people  do  assemble  in 
a  mass,  supposing  all  ranks  and  all  degrees,  and  all 
numbers  were  to  be  assembled  in  one  vast  plain — must 
also  admit  as  a  consequence  that  when  people  are  so 
assembled,  all  the  constitutional  powers  they  had  before 
devolved  upon  the  functionaries  established  by  them- 
selves must  for  the  moment  cease,  and  be  resolved  into 
the  original  mass ;  .  .  .  the  people  must  then  resume 
their  original  functions,  and  the  Government  would  be 
dissolved.  Hence  it  follows,  beyond  all  contradiction, 
that  vast  masses  of  persons  assembling  under  no  specific 
character,  under  no  constituted  authority,  not  called  by 
any  public  functionary,  but  upon  their  own  individual 
free-will  and  choice,  or  by  the  call  of  some  demagogue, 


CHAP,  xi     SEDITIOUS  MEETINGS  PREVENTION  ACT  513 

who  may  exercise  a  temporary  influence  over  their 
minds,  but  has  no  right  to  exercise  an  influence  over 
their  actions,  connected  with  no  particular  trade,  affected 
by  no  peculiar  interest,  but  taking  into  their  most  com- 
prehensive scope  all  the  great  principles  that  support 
the  fabric  of  the  Constitution,  that  persons  so  assembled, 
by  such  means,  and  with  such  objects,  never  can  be  a 
lawful  assembly,  by  the  constitution  and  law  of  any 
country  on  the  face  of  the  earth"  (Athens  perhaps 
excepted). 

But  Crown  officials  and  others  might  argue  as  much 
as  they  liked  about  the  rights  or  wrongs  of  the  people 
meeting ;  or  they  might  put  any  theoretic  interpreta- 
tion that  suited  their  fancy  on  that  ever-changing 
entity,  the  "  Constitution." 

The  fact  was,  and  it  was  a  more  powerful  fact  than 
all  the  arguments  that  were  used,  the  country  was  out- 
growing its  swaddling  clothes  of  county  meetings  and 
borough  meetings  and  sheriff-convened  meetings,  and 
would  no  longer  consent  to  be  bound  by  them.  The 
time-honoured  formula  of  "  The  nobility,  gentry,  clergy, 
and  freeholders "  had  ceased  to  be  comprehensive 
enough. 

The  Government,  totally  regardless  of  all  con- 
siderations but  what  affected  themselves,  resolved  to 
suppress  the  Platform.  Said  that  arch-despot,  Lord 
Sidmouth :  "  Conciliation  had  been  recommended,  and 
it  was  the  most  ardent  wish  of  his  Majesty's  Ministers 
to  resort  to  measures  which  were  truly  conciliatory.  .  .  . 
But  to  hold  out  a  disposition  to  blend  conciliation  with 
concession  was  a  course  to  which  he  could  not  agree, 
for  it  was  one  fraught  with  danger.  But  what  had 
they  to  concede  ?  Did  they  not  possess  the  Constitu- 
tion they  had  received  from  their  ancestors  ?  That 


514         THE  PLATFORM:   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

"  Constitution  was  now  in  greater  danger  than  it  had 
ever  been  at  any  time  since  the  accession  of  the  House 
of  Brunswick  to  the  throne,  and  he  therefore  called  on 
their  Lordships  to  rally  round  it.  He  called  upon  the 
noble  Lords  opposite  to  give  their  aid,  to  assist  in 
defeating  the  common  enemy  that  threatened  the 
subversion  of  the  Constitution  and  everything  valuable 
in  the  existing  order  of  Society.  Let  them  go  hand  and 
hand  in  this  great  object."1 

The  Government  accordingly  introduced  a  Bill  "  for 
more  effectually  preventing  Seditious  Meetings  and 
Assemblies." 

To  simplify  our  consideration  of  the  subject  I  give 
at  once  the  principal  provisions  of  the  Bill  as  it  became 
law. 

As  was  usual  in  those  times  the  Act  began  with 
a  preamble.  In  this  case  the  preamble  ran  as  follows  : 
"  Whereas  in  divers  parts  of  this  kingdom  assemblies  of 
large  numbers  of  persons  collected  from  various  parishes 
and  districts  under  the  pretext  of  deliberating  upon 
public  grievances,  and  of  agreeing  on  Petitions,  Com- 
plaints, Remonstrances,  Declarations,  Resolutions,  or 
Addresses  upon  the  subject  thereof,  have  of  late  been 
held  in  disturbance  of  the  public  peace,  to  the  great 
terror  and  danger  of  his  Majesty's  loyal  and  peaceable 
subjects,  and  in  a  manner  manifestly  tending  to  produce 
confusion  and  calamities  in  the  nation."  The  Act  then 
proceeded  to  enact  that  no  meeting  of  any  description  of 
persons  exceeding  the  number  of  fifty  persons  (except 
county  meetings,  etc., "duly  convened)  shall  be  holden  for 
the  purpose,  or  on  the  pretext,  of  deliberating  upon  any 
public  grievance,  or  upon  any  matter  or  thing  relating 
to  any  trade,  manufacture,  or  business,  or  profession,  or 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xli.  p.  348. 


CHAP,  xi      SEDITIOUS  MEETINGS  PREVENTION  ACT         515 

§ 

upon  any  matter  in  Church  or  State ;  or  of  consider- 
ing, proposing,  or  agreeing  to  any  Petition,  Complaint, 
Remonstrance,  Declaration,  Resolution,  or  Address,  upon 
the  subject  thereof,  unless  in  separate  parishes  or  town- 
ships, and  where  persons  calling  the  meeting  shall 
usually  inhabit,  and  unless  notice  in  writing,  signed 
by  seven  householders  of  the  parish,  of  the  intention  to 
hold  such  meeting,  and  of  the  time  and  place,  when 
and  where,  and  of  the  purpose  for  which  the  same  shall 
be  proposed  to  be  holden,  shall  be  delivered  to  a  magis- 
trate of  the  district.1 

The  magistrates  were  given  the  power  to  alter  both 
the  place  and  the  date  named  by  the  applicants,  thus 
simultaneous  meetings  were  guarded  against.  That  was 
a  power  they  were  not  given  before.  But  a  more 
ingenious  and  deadly  blow  than  any  which  had  pre- 
viously been  devised  was  the  enactment  that  no  person 
should  attend  a  meeting  unless  such  a  person  was  a 
resident  of  the  district  for  which  the  meeting  was  held  ; 
and  herein  was  the  great  difference  between  this  Act 
and  that  of  1817.  If  the  meeting  were  a  county  one, 
a  freeholder  of  the  county  might  attend  ;  but  in  a  meet- 
ing of  the  district  or  parish,  no  one  but  an  inhabitant  of 
the  district  or  parish  might  attend,  and  any  person  con- 
travening this  law  might,  on  conviction,  be  punished  by 
a  fine  and  twelve  months'  imprisonment. 

If  any  such  persons  attended,  the  magistrate  might, 
by  proclamation,  order  them  to  depart,  and  if  they  did 
not  do  so,  they  rendered  themselves  liable  to  be 
adjudged  felons,  and  to  a  punishment  of  seven  years' 
transportation,  or  if  any  meeting  was  held  in  contra- 
vention to  the  terms  of  this  Act  they  incurred  a  similar 
penalty.  If  any  magistrate  at  a  meeting  thought  fit 

1  60  Geo.  III.  cap.  6. 


516         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

to  order  any  person  propounding  or  maintaining  pro- 
positions for  altering  anything  by  law  established 
except  by  authority  of  King,  Lords,  and  Commons,  into 
custody,  he  might  do  so ;  in  case  of  any  obstruction  he 
might  order  the  meeting  to  disperse,  and  any  disobeyal 
laid  the  offenders  open  to  the  penalty  of  some  seven 
years'  transportation.  Justices,  etc.,  were  indemnified 
for  any  loss  of  life,  maiming,  etc.,  resulting  from  resist- 
ance to  their  orders. 

Two  exemptions  were  made  to  these  provisions. 
"  Nothing  hereinbefore  contained  shall  extend,  or  be 
construed  to  extend,  to  any  meeting  or  assembly  which 
shall  be  wholly  holden  in  any  room  or  apartment  of 
any  house  or  building ; "  or  to  meetings  for  returning 
members  to  Parliament.  Furthermore,  it  was  enacted, 
that  no  persons  were  to  attend  any  meeting  whatsoever, 
with  any  arms  of  any  sort,  nor  were  they  to  attend 
meetings  with  banners,  flags,  or  other  ensigns,  or 
emblems.  And  then  followed  the  provisions  with  which 
Acts  of  1795  and  1817  have  made  us  familiar,  against 
lecture  rooms  and  debating  societies.  In  one  respect 
was  the  Act  more  lenient  than  that  of  1817 — namely, 
that  the  penalty  for  not  obeying  the  order  of  the 
magistrates  or  resisting  authority  was  reduced  from 
"  death  without  benefit  of  clergy  "  to  a  sentence  of  not 
more  than  seven  years'  transportation.  The  exemption 
as  regards  meetings  "  wholly  holden  in  any  room  or 
apartment  of  any  house  or  building,"  on  the  surface  of 
it  looks  a  considerable  one,  but  in  reality  scarcely 
afforded  any  relaxation  of  the  stringency  of  the 
measure. 

The  Bill  was  introduced  into  the  House  of  Commons 
and  read  a  first  time  on  the  29th  November,  Lord 
Castlereagh  being  its  sponsor  and  expounder.  From 


CHAP,  xi      LAW  AS  REGARDED  PUBLIC  MEETINGS  51? 

the  introduction  of  so  tremendous  a  measure  against 
public  meeting  and  freedom  of  discussion,  one  might  be 
led  to  infer  that  there  were  no  existing  restrictions  on 
public  meetings.  This,  however,  was  very  far  from 
being  the  case,  and  renders  the  action  of  the  Govern- 
ment only  the  more  inexcusable.  The  law  on  the 
subject  had  been  expounded  by  Mr.  Plunket1  with 
clearness  and  eloquence  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

He  said,  "  The  right  of  the  people  of  this  country  to 
meet  for  the  purpose  of  expressing  their  opinions  on 
any  subject  connected  with  their  own  individual  interest, 
or  with  the  public  welfare,  was  beyond  all  question. 
It  was  a  sacred  privilege,  belonging  to  the  most 
humble,  as  fully  as  to  the  highest  subject  in  the 
community ;  they  had  a  right  to  the  full  expression, 
and  to  the  free  communication  of  such  sentiments ;  to 
interchange  them  with  their  fellow-subjects  ;  to  animate 
and  catch  fire,  each  from  the  other.  But  he  must  say 
that  these  rights,  like  all  others,  to  be  exercised  in  civil 
society,  must  be  subject  to  such  modification  and 
restriction,  as  to  render  them  compatible  with  other 
rights  equally  acknowledged  and  equally  sacred.  Every 
subject  of  this  realm  had  an  undoubted  right  to  the 
protection  of  the  laws,  to  the  security  of  his  person  and 
property,  and  still  more  to  the  full  assurance  of  such 
safety ;  and  he  had  no  hesitation  in  asserting  that  any 
assembly  of  the  people,  held  under  such  circumstances 
as  to  excite  in  the  minds  of  the  King's  peaceable  and 
loyal  subjects  reasonable  grounds  of  alarm  in  this  respect, 
were  illegal  assemblies,  and  liable  to  be  dispersed  as 
such.  .  .  . 

"Any  assembly  of  the  people,  whether  armed  or 
unarmed,  whether  using  or  threatening  to  use  force,  or 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  1819,  vol.  xli.  p.  129. 


5i8         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

"not  doing  so,  and  whether  the  avowed  object  was 
illegal  or  legal,  if  held  in  such  numbers,  or  with  such 
language,  or  emblems,  or  deportment,  as  to  create  well- 
grounded  terror  in  the  King's  liege  subjects  for  their 
lives,  their  persons,  or  their  property,  was  an  illegal 
assembly,  and  might  be  dispersed  as  such.  Such  had 
been  the  law  as  laid  down  by  the  ablest  of  our  lawyers, 
and  of  our  judges,  from  the  earliest  period  of  our  juris- 
prudence, and  in  the  best  time  of  our  history,  and 
Constitution,  before  the  Revolution,  and  since  the 
Revolution,  independent  of  the  Riot  Act,  or  of  any 
statutable  enactment  by  the  principles  of  our  common 
law,  which  was  always  founded  on  the  principles  of 
common  sense." 

This  was  not,  however,  enough  for  the  Government. 
Though  they  arrested  many  people  for  attending  illegal 
meetings,  this  did  not  satisfy  them,  they  wanted  powers 
to  deal  with  the  origin  of  all  the  mischief — the  meetings, 
and  with  the  more  notorious  speakers  at  them.  "  Those 
individuals  who  reduced  grievance-making  into  a  trade 
would  no  longer  have  it  in  their  power  to  travel  about 
the  land,  and  poison  the  minds  of  men  who  had  not 
been  aware  but  that  they  lived  under  tfye  mildest  Govern- 
ment, and  had  not  known  that  their  greatest  enemy 
was  the  House  of  Commons."  l 

Lord  Sidmouth  enumerated  clearly  enough  what  he 
considered  were  the  deficiencies  of  the  existing  state  of 
the  law,  and  his  speech  is  important  as  showing  what 
control  the  Government  thought  they  should  have  over 
the  Platform. 

"The  existing  law  did  not  prescribe  any  mode  of 
giving  notice  (of  a  meeting),  or  superintendence  (of  a 
meeting)  by  magistrates.  It  in  no  way  regulated  the 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xli.  p.  390. 


CHAP,  xi        PERMANENT  CENSORSHIP  PROPOSED  519 

manner  of  attending  meetings  ;  it  did  not  prohibit  going 
to  meetings  in  military  array,  or  carrying  to  them 
weapons ;  it  did  not  prevent  simultaneous  meetings, 
nor  the  continuance  of  meetings  by  adjournment;  it 
did  not  prevent  assembling  with  flags  and  banners ;  if 
seditious  or  treasonable  language  were  spoken  it  did 
not,  besides  empowering  a  magistrate  to  order  the 
person  offending  into  custody,  also  enable  him,  in  the 
case  of  resistance,  to  declare  the  meeting  illegal ;  it  did 
not  provide  against  a  great  abuse,  the  evil  effects  of 
which  had  been  extensively  experienced — namely,  that 
when  the  inhabitants  of  a  particular  town  or  district 
were  summoned  to  a  meeting,  so  many  strangers 
attended,  that  the  majority  of  the  meeting  did  not 
consist  of  such  inhabitants.  Neither  did  it  provide 
against  the  most  pernicious  practice  of  itinerant  orators 
attending  public  meetings,  and  collecting  vast  multi- 
tudes to  hear  their  harangues — all  these  great  evils  for 
which  the  existing  law  had  no  remedy."1 

It  will  have  been  observed  how  thoroughly  the 
Act  met  all  these  deficiencies,  but  it  did  even  more 
than  this,  for  it  practically  prevented  any  meetings 
whatever  in  some  districts,  whilst  all  meetings  were 
placed  under  the  censorship  of  the  local  magistracy, 
and  thus  the  whole  public  opinion  of  the  country,  as 
expressible  from  the  Platform,  could  be  controlled  and 
manipulated  by  the  Government  and  its  henchmen, 
and  would  be  absolutely  at  their  mercy.  The  measure 
was  in  effect  far  more  restrictive  in  its  operation  than 
the  Act  of  1817,  or  that  of  1795,  and  having  been 
drafted  with  greater  ingenuity  and  thoroughness,  it 
left  no  loophole  open  for  evasion. 

The   intense   detestation   of  the   Platform    by   the 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xli.  p.  1235. 


520         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

Government  is  further  emphasised  by  the  fact  that  they 
had  the  audacity  to  propose  that  this  crushing  measure 
should  be  part  and  parcel  of  the  permanent  law  of  the 
country.  They  calmly  proposed  that  from  that  time 
forth  for  evermore  all  public  meetings  in  Great  Britain 
should  be  under  these  intolerable  restrictions,  that  the 
coming  together  of  the  people  and  the  expression  of 
their  opinions  should  be  under  the  censorship  of  the 
magistrates,  and  that  all  England  should,  as  it  were,  be 
parcelled  out  into  little  bits,  into  which  it  should  be 
felony  for  any  stranger,  however  eminent,  to  enter  and 
to  endeavour  to  address  the  people. 

One  has  to  go  back  to  the  days  of  the  Inquisition 
and  the  rule  of  a  Philip  II.  of  Spain  to  find  a  parallel 
for  such  intolerance  of  spoken  opinion.  Lord  Liverpool 
must  primarily  be  held  responsible  for  it,  but  the  real 
discredit  and  shame  must  fall  on  his  active  lieutenants — 
Lords  Sidmouth  and  Castlereagh.  It  was  contended  by 
Government,  though  their  contention  was  false  on  the 
very  face  of  it,  that  they  were  only  suppressing  the 
tumultuous  and  illegitimate  expression  of  opinion,  that 
they  had  not  infringed  at  all  in  the  right  of  public 
meeting  and  petitioning.  "  If  anything,  indeed,  they 
had  fenced  that  right  round  and  made  it  tenfold 
securer,"  said  Lord  Sidmouth ;  though  how,  it  would 
have  puzzled  even  him  to  explain. 

Lord  Castlereagh  declared,  with  that  detestable 
hypocrisy,  which  was  so  common  in  the  speeches  of  the 
leading  Tory  statesmen  of  those  days,  and  which  at 
times  was  so  patent  and  so  glaring  that  one  wonders 
that  they  had  the  barefacedness  to  make  the  statements 
they  did :  "  He  had  no  wish  to  prevent  people  from 
assembling  when  deliberation  was  really  the  object 
which  they  had  in  view  ;  he  had  no  wish  to  put  an  end 


CHAP,  xi  PROGRESS  OF  THE  BILL  521 

to  those  meetings  which  were  the  peculiar  boast  of 
England,  and  which,  till  modern  times,  had  been  pro- 
ductive of  so  much  benefit  and  advantage  "  ; l  and  yet, 
he  was  devoting  days  and  weeks  to  obtaining  legislation 
from  Parliament,  which  would  have  the  very  effect  he 
so  hypocritically  deprecated. 

Great  stress  was  laid  on  the  fact  that  duly  convened 
county  meetings  were  exempted.  The  exemption,  how- 
ever, was  little  more  than  a  mockery.  Lord  Folkestone 
pointed  out  in  the  course  of  the  debates  that  "  county 
meetings  were  indeed  left  open,  but  after  the  so  pre- 
vailing fashion  of  the  sheriffs  refusing  to  convene  them, 
could  it  be  mistaken  that  the  object  was  to  prevent 
altogether  those  numerous  meetings  in  which  English- 
men communicated  to  one  another  their  sentiments  of 
attachment  to  the  laws  of  their  Constitution,  and  of 
opposition  to  the  inroads  of  arbitrary  power  ?  " 

Mr.  Coke  supported  this  view.  "  Who  had  ever- 
heard  of  a  Lord  Lieutenant,"  he  said,  "  calling  a  public 
meeting  ?  and  who  had  not  heard  that  most  respectable 
requisitions  for  public  meetings  had  been  frequently 
refused  by  sheriffs  ?  " 2  And  Brougham  quoted  four  cases 
in  which,  within  the  preceding  two  months,  the  sheriffs 
had  refused  requisitions  to  convene  a  county  meeting. 
Another  conclusive  proof  that  the  determination  of  the 
Government  was  to  suppress  all  public  discussion  absol- 
utely and  completely,  was  to  be  found  in  their  proposal 
that  the  Act  should  extend  to  the  whole  of  Great  Britain, 
though  it  was  admitted  on  all  sides,  themselves  included, 
and  was  indeed  evident  to  all  men,  that  the  occurrences 
which  the  Bill  was  meant  to  check  were  confined  entirely 
to  one  part  of  the  country — namely,  Lancashire,  Cheshire, 
some  districts  in  Yorkshire,  and  some  parts  of  Scotland. 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xli.  p.  387.  2  Ibid.  p.  644. 


522         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

The  attempt  was  made  by  the  popular  party  in  the 
House  to  limit  the  sphere  of  the  Act,  but  that  would  not 
have  suited  the  purpose  of  the  Government,  and  they 
declined  to  give  way.  On  one  point,  however,  from 
very  shame  sake,  they  were  obliged  to  make  a  con- 
cession. After  much  pressure  they  gave  way  as  to  the 
permanency  of  the  Act,  and  contented  themselves  by 
fixing  the  period  in  which  it  was  to  remain  in  force  as 
five  years,  and  to  the  end  of  the  next  session  of  Parlia- 
ment— that  is  to  say,  till  about  the  middle  of  the  year 
1825.  The  second  reading  of  the  Bill  was  carried  by 
351  to  128  in  the  House  of  Commons,  or  a  majority  of 
223,  and  it  soon  became  law.  Outside  the  House  but 
little  effort  was  made  to  stay  the  hands  of  the  Government 
whilst  the  Bill  was  under  discussion.  Experience  had 
proved  to  the  people  that  such  efforts  were  useless. 
Parliament  and  the  Regent  ever  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  all 
their  complaints,  and,  moreover,  the  legislation  was 
hurried  through  Parliament  with  such  rapidity  that  but 
little  time  was  available  for  remonstrating.  Westmin- 
ster, true  to  the  last,  held  a  meeting  on  8th  December, 
and  petitioned  against  the  proposed  legislation.  Sir  F. 
Burdett  presided.  He  laid  down  very  clearly  his  views 
on  the  right  of  which  they  were  about  to  be  deprived. 
He  considered  the  right  of  public  meeting  to  be  a  right 
of  nature,  derived  from  no  Government,  and  too  sacred 
to  be  interfered  with  by  any  set  of  men.  "  When  God 
gave  to  them  the  means  of  communicating  their  thoughts 
one  to  another,  He  sanctioned  that  communication,  and 
sanctioned  also  the  best  means  by  which  that  communi- 
cation could  be  effected." 

The  Petition  was  ordered  to  lie  on  the  table,  and  to 
be  printed,  but  nothing  more  came  of  it. 

Before,  and  whilst  this  Act  was  being  obtained  from 


CHAP,  xi  STATE  PROSECUTIONS  523 

Parliament,  the  Government  had  been  putting  the 
ordinary  law  into  action  in  their  efforts  to  silence  the 
Platform.  To  give  the  result  of  the  prosecutions  it  will 
be  necessary  to  trench  somewhat  on  the  history  of  the 
next  year  or  two,  but  for  the  sake  of  getting  a  view  of 
their  action  as  a  whole,  it  will  be  convenient  to  mention 
those  results  here. 

Immediately  after  the  Manchester  meeting  of  16th 
August  Hunt,  Bamford,  and  eight  other  men,  and  one 
woman,  were  charged  with  "high  treason."1  This 
charge  was  too  preposterous  to  be  sustainable,  and  the 
Government  had  to  content  itself  with  proceeding  on  a 
lesser  one. 

On  the  16th  of  March  1820  Hunt  and  nine  others, 
including  Samuel  Bamford,  were  tried  at  the  Spring 
Assizes  at  York  on  an  indictment  of  several  "  counts  " 
for  conspiracy  and  unlawful  assembling.  Five  of  them 
were  found  "not  guilty"  on  any  of  the  "counts." 
Hunt,  Bamford,  and  three  others  were  convicted  only 
on  one — namely,  that  they  "  unlawfully,  maliciously,  and 
seditiously  did  meet  and  assemble  themselves  together, 
with  divers  other  persons,  for  the  purpose  of  raising  and 
exciting  discontent  and  disaffection  in  the  minds  of  the 
liege  subjects  of  the  King,  and  for  the  purpose  of  moving 
and  exciting  them  to  hatred  and  contempt  of  the 
Government  and  Constitution  of  the  realm  as  by  law 
established  "  ; 2  and  thus,  by  a  verdict  in  a  court  of  law, 
the  celebrated  Manchester  or  Peterloo  meeting  was 
declared  to  have  been  an  illegal  one.  Hunt  was  sen- 
tenced to  two  years'  and  six  months'  imprisonment,  and 
then  to  find  security  for  his  good  behaviour  for  five 
years.  Bamford  and  two  others  to  one  year's  imprison- 
ment and  then  security. 

1  Bamford,  vol.  i.  pp.  249-251.     a  State  Trials,  New  Series,  vol.  i.  p.  171,  etc. 


524         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

Other  prosecutions  were  also  persevered  in.  On  the 
1st  of  April  (1820)  eight  men  who  had  participated  in  the 
Habergham  Eaves  meeting,  near  Burnley,  which  has 
already  been  described,  were  tried  "  for  unlawfully  con- 
spiring to  assemble  an  unlawful  meeting,  for  attending 
an  unlawful  meeting,  and  for  causing  people  to  go  armed 
to  a  public  meeting."  Two  were  acquitted,  the  rest 
convicted.  Knight  and  two  others  got  two  years' 
imprisonment ;  one,  eighteen  months'  imprisonment ; 
one,  fifteen  months  ;  one,  a  year's  imprisonment. 

On  the  10th  of  April  1820  Sir  C.  Wolseley,  the 
"  Legislatorial  Attorney  "  and  representative  of  Birming- 
ham, and  the  Rev.  J.  Harrison,  were  indicted  for  attend- 
ing "  an  unlawful  assembly  at  Stockport  on  28th  of 
July  1819,  and  for  a  conspiracy  to  cause  a  riot."  They 
were  found  guilty  and  each  sentenced  to  eighteen 
months'  imprisonment. 

Curiously  enough,  one  of  the  cases  which  one  might 
naturally  have  thought  the  Government  would  have 
been  anxious  to  press  forward  before  all  others,  was 
delayed.  The  trial  of  five  of  the  principal  men  who 
had  taken  part  in  the  celebrated  meeting  at  Birming- 
ham on  the  12th  July  1819,  at  which  Sir  C.  Wolseley 
had  been  elected,  did  not  take  place  for  more  than  a 
year  after  their  offence — namely,  on  the  3d  of  August 
1820.1  The  charge  against  them  was,  "Devising  and 
intending  to  raise  and  to  excite  discontent  and  dis- 
affection in  the  minds  of  some  of  the  liege  subjects 
of  the  King,  and  to  move  them  to  hatred  and  con- 
tempt of  the  Government  and  Constitution  of  the 
realm  as  by  law  established,  and  that  they  unlawfully 
and  seditiously  did  combine  and  conspire  together  to 

1  There  is  a  slight  mistake  in  the  there  given  throughout  as  1821.  It 
report  of  these  cases  in  the  volume  of  took  place  a  year  earlier — namely,  in 
State  Trials.  The  date  of  the  trial  is  August  1820. 


CHAP,  xi  STATE  PROSECUTIONS  525 

nominate,  elect,  and  appoint  a  person  to  be  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  inhabitants  of  Birmingham,  and  to 
claim  admission  as  such  into  the  Commons  House  of 
Parliament  as  a  member  thereof " ;  also  for  assembling 
for  the  purpose  of  hearing  divers  scandalous  seditious 
and  inflammatory  speeches,  etc.,  and  several  other  intri- 
cate legal  charges,  or,  as  they  are  technically  called, 
"  counts."  The  prisoners  were  convicted.  A  legal  point 
being  reserved,  they  were  not  sentenced  till  the  follow- 
ing May.  Then  the  judge,  in  sentencing  them,  delivered 
a  political  homily :  "  Now,  having  gone  through  the 
detail  of  the  speeches  which  were  used  at  that  time, 
can  any  man  doubt  that  those  speeches  were  calculated 
to  raise  in  the  minds  of  those  persons  by  whom  they 
were  heard  dissatisfaction  and  belief  that  they  were 
deprived  of  certain  rights,  and  to  excite  contempt  and 
dislike  of  the  Gommons  House  of  Parliament  ? "  1  He 
commented  on  the  gravity  of  the  offence,  and  said : 
"  That  a  very  heavy  offence  had  been  committed."  He 
inveighed  against  the  argument  that  every  man  had 
a  right  to  a  vote,  and  stated  that  "  Every  man  has  not  a 
right  to  concur  in  the  appointment  of  his  own  legislators. 
Every  man  is  represented  by  every  member  of  Parlia- 
ment, and  when  a  member  of  Parliament  is  returned  to 
Parliament,  he  acts,  not  merely  for  those  individuals  by 
whom  he  is  sent,  but  it  is  his  bounden  duty  to  act  for 
every  individual  throughout  the  whole  of  the  kingdom. 
...  It  is  one  of  the  principles  of  our  law  that  though  a 
particular  place  elects  a  member,  as  soon  as  he  is  elected, 
he  is  not  to  be  considered  as  the  representative  of  the 
particular  place  only,  but  of  the  kingdom  at  large." 

Edmunds  was  sentenced  to  nine  months'  imprison- 
ment, Maddocks  eighteen  months,  Wooller  fifteen  months, 

1  State  Trials,  New  Series,  vol.  i.  p.  946. 


526         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

and  all  to  give  security  for  good  conduct  for  five  years ; 
Cartwright,  being  very  old,  was  let  off  with  a  fine  of  £100. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  pursue  this  branch  of  the  matter 
further.  Doubtless,  were  we  to  rake  still  further  among 
the  dusty  files  of  legal  records,  we  should  find  numerous 
enough  traces  of  other  prosecutions.  Thus  at  Pontefract 
Sessions,  in  1820,1  one  Mitchell,  otherwise  unknown  to 
fame,  was  found  guilty  "  of  having  uttered  certain 
seditious  words  "  in  a  speech  at  a  meeting  near  Halifax, 
and  was  sent  to  prison  for  six  months,  and  then  had  to 
find  bail. 

Sufficient  instances  have  been  given  to  show  the 
determination  of  the  Government  to  suppress  the  Plat- 
form by  every  means  within  their  reach  or  power. 

Twice,  then,  within  the  brief  period  of  three  years, 
had  Lord  Liverpool's  Ministry,  in  their  last  and  desperate 
effort  to  check  the  rising  demand  for  Parliamentary 
reform,  done  their  utmost  to  suppress  public  meetings 
and  freedom  of  speech. 

The  violence  of  some  of  the  language  used  on  the 
Platform,  the  imposing  numbers  at  meetings,  were  in 
themselves  sufficiently  grave  and  disconcerting  occur- 
rences to  some  of  the  more  timid  classes.  But  when 
Ministers,  for  their  own  party  ends,  stirred  once  more 
into  flame  the  nearly  extinguished  embers  of  the  horror 
excited  by  the  Reign  of  Terror,  and  threw  upon  these 
speeches  and  these  meetings  the  dread  light  of  revolution, 
the  agitation  assumed  to  many  an  aspect  of  imminent 
danger  and  impending  revolution. 

These  large  and  formidable-looking  meetings  were 
undoubtedly  more  demonstrations  of  physical  force  than 
meetings  for  deliberation,  but  following  as  they  did  on 
the  outrages  and  disturbances  of  1812,  they  show  a  dis- 

1  The  Examiner,  p.  261,  1820. 


CHAP,  xi      THE  SUPPRESSION  OF  THE  PLATFORM  527 

tinct  progress  or  improvement  in  popular  action.  In 
1812  there  had  been  no  platforming,  no  petitioning,  only 
nocturnal  gatherings  and  secret  oaths,  and  recourse  to  phy- 
sical force.  Now  the  people  came  together  in  open  public 
meetings ;  there  may  not  have  been  much  deliberation 
at  their  meetings,  but  the  first  step  towards  it  was  taken 
once  they  adopted  the  Platform,  trying  to  voice  their 
complaints  and  distresses  ;  there  was  a  display  of  physical 
force,  but  that,  with  public  speech,  was  better  than 
dumb  physical  force,  venting  itself  in  outrage  and 
violence. 

But  instead  of  welcoming  the  expression  of  popular 
wants  and  grievances,  as  throwing  light  on  the  needs  of 
the  people,  and  affording  a  guide  for  a  policy  which 
would  tend  to  good  order,  prosperity,  and  contentment, 
the  Government,  irritated  and  vexed  beyond  measure, 
betrayed  to  the  world  their  deep-seated  virulent  anti- 
pathy to  the  people. 

The  truth  was,  they  did  not  care  to  hear  anything 
from  the  people — they  did  not  want  to  know  anything 
about  them — they  scouted  their  opinions  or  wishes — they 
repudiated  their  claims  to  just  government,  much  more 
their  claims  to  a  voice  in  the  government — they  jeered 
at  their  asserted  rights  as  founded  on  the  pernicious 
teaching  of  French  revolutionists. 

One  needs  to  peruse  the  political  speeches  of  the  day 
to  realise  at  all  the  apprehensions,  real  or  assumed, 
which  filled  the  breasts  of  some  of  the  leading  politicians, 
the  fury  with  which  others  of  them  stigmatised  every 
one,  and  everything  that  made  for  a  reform  of  the 
existing  state  of  the  Constitution.  In  their  furious 
wrath  language  was  used  by  them,  often  far  more 
hostile  to  liberty,  more  treasonable  to  the  public  weal, 
and  more  destructive  to  freedom  than  any  used  against 


528         THE  PLATFORM  :  ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

the  Constitution  by  the  most  rabid  demagogue  who  was 
prosecuted  for  seditious  language.  The  shifts  to  which 
they  were  put  in  their  endeavours  to  combat  the  claims 
of  the  people  for  a  share  in  the  Government  were 
extreme.  Often  were  they  so  glaringly  absurd  that  we 
can  scarcely  credit  the  speakers  with  believing  them. 
The  most  indefensible  abuses  that  helped  to  that  end 
were  defended.  Even  sinecures  found  a  defender  in  the 
Prime  Minister,  who  himself  said,  "The  abolition  of 
sinecures  appeared  to  him  to  be  a  matter  of  at  least 
very  doubtful  policy." 

Those  interested  in  the  maintenance  of  the  system, 
however,  were  determined  to  use  their  utmost  strength 
in  preserving  it.  Strong  still  in  the  support  of  the 
nominees  of  rotten  boroughs ;  powerful  by  virtue  of  a 
shameless  corruption  and  enormous  patronage,  the 
Government  determined  to  silence  the  Platform — the 
voice  of  the  people — as  the  simplest  and  most  efficacious 
way  of  dealing  with  the  growing  popular  demands,  and 
of  cutting  short  arguments  which  they  were  unable  to 
meet  with  any  even  plausible  reason.  They  struck, 
therefore,  as  Pitt  had  done,  and  as  they  themselves  had 
once  done  already — only  this  time  it  was  a  more  crafty 
insidious  blow.  Rallying  to  the  call  of  the  Government, 
the  ministerial  majority  in  the  short  period  of  a  month 
passed  that  comprehensive  code  of  repressive  legisla- 
tion, "  the  Six  Acts."  Thus  once  more  was  the  Plat- 
form struck  down — the  right  of  public  meeting,  except 
in  a  room  or  house,  was  taken  away,  the  right  of 
freedom  of  speech  with  it,  and  the  two  most  potent 
factors  in  political  liberty,  and  political  education,  were 
at  one  blow,  for  the  time  being,  destroyed. 


CHAPTER  XII 
THE  PLATFORM'S  PROGRESS  UNDER  GEORGE  in 

ON  the  29th  of  January  1820,  within  a  few  weeks  of 
the  third  attempt  to  annihilate  the  Platform  by  legisla- 
tive enactment,  the  aged  king,  after  a  reign  of  sixty 
years,  died.  Had  he  been  capable  of  understanding 
what  was  passing  around  him,  his  closing  days  might 
have  been  soothed  and  cheered  by  seeing  the  foe  with 
which  he  had  so  often  grappled  lying  bound  hand  and 
foot.  Time  after  time,  from  the  days  long  passed,  when 
the  gage  of  battle  had  been  thrown  down  by  the  Middle- 
sex electors,  had  he  wrestled  with  it,  and  temporarily 
triumphed;  but  again  and  again  had  it  risen  with 
renewed  and  increased  strength.  Now,  however,  there 
lay  his  foe,  helpless  and  inert,  bound  with  bonds  stronger 
than  before,  not  to  stir  again  while  the  life-blood  flowed 
in  his  veins. 

His  reign  had  been  an  eventful  one.  For  sixty 
years  had  he  filled  the  throne — filled  it  while  democracy, 
which  he  hated  with  the  most  intense  hatred,  was  being 
registered  and  recorded  for  all  time  in  the  republican 
"Constitution"  of  the  United  States  of  America,  and 
while  it  was  being  ushered  into  the  European  world 
in  the  birth-throes  of  the  French  Revolution ;  filled  it 
while,  by  slow  degrees,  the  country  over  which  he  ruled 


530        THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

was  being  indoctrinated  with  democratic  ideas ;  while 
new  generations  were  growing  up,  with  altogether 
higher  ideals  and  loftier  principles  than  those  that  had 
hitherto  prevailed.  He  and  his  Ministers  had  suc- 
ceeded with  ever-increasing  difficulty  in  holding  at  bay, 
at  home,  the  outward  visible  form  of  democracy,  but 
the  inward  spiritual  power  was  beyond  their  reach. 

As  a  last  desperate  effort  they  had  struck  down 
the  Platform  and  silenced  it,  but  the  Platform  already 
possessed  an  indestructible  life  and  was  beyond  their 

Jt  J 

utmost  power  to  crush.  What  was  feeble  and  weak 
when  he  ascended  the  throne  had  become  strong  and 
powerful ;  what  were  tendencies  then  had  developed 
into  unalterable  determinations ;  the  seeds  had  grown 
into  strong  trees,  and,  more  than  ever  before,  was  the 
whole  bent  of  mind  and  character  of  the  people  in  the 
direction  of  public  meeting  and  public  speaking. 

To  such  strength  had  the  Platform  now  grown  that 
not  for  long  would  it  submit  to  the  restraints  put  upon 
it ;  a  little  more,  and  its  freedom  from  all  such  restraints 
would  be  for  ever  assured. 

Before  proceeding  to  describe  its  revival  from  the 
blow  dealt  to  it,  and  the  final  accomplishment  of  its 
freedom,  it  will  be  well  to  enumerate  briefly  the  causes 
which  were  contributing  to  make  it  so  irresistible  a 
power. 

Those  causes  were  partly  intellectual  and  moral, 
partly  physical  and  material.  All  through  the  long 
reign  of  the  late  King  great  democratic  influences  were 
at  work — some  literary  and  theoretical,  others  actual  and 
visible ;  and  slowly  but  surely  new  intellectual  and 
moral  forces  were  being  marshalled  against  the  existing 
system  of  Government — forces  which  at  times  operated 
quietly  and  unobtrusively,  yet  which  every  now  and 


CHAP,  xii          THE  PLATFORM  AND  GEORGE  III.  531 

then,  as  some  new  burst  of  conviction  or  some  new 
ferment  of  mind  took  place,  moved  the  people  to  life 
and  action,  and  impelled  them  to  give  expression  to 
their  feelings.  Had  a  proper  system  of  representative 
government  existed,  these  forces  might  have  found  a 
partial  vent  through  the  representative  body;  but, 
owing  to  the  defective  and  little  more  than  nominal 
system  that  existed,  and  to  its  utter  and  complete 
inadequacy  as  a  form  of  government  for  a  people 
ambitious  beyond  all  things  of  self-government,  they 
were  driven  to  seek  vent  elsewhere,  and  they  sought 
and  found  it  in  or  through  the  Platform. 

These  new  forces  were  all  in  the  direction  of  greater 
freedom,  of  greater  equality,  and  of  a  more  liberal  and 
representative  system  of  Government.  The  whole  course 
of  intellectual  thought  was  flowing  in  this  direction, 
except  such  thought  as  those  possessed  who,  at  the  time, 
monopolised  the  power  and  advantages  of  Government. 
The  belief  that  men  had  a  right  to  govern  themselves — 
so  far  as  any  system  of  Government  could  secure  that 
end — had  spread  widely  among  the  people ;  the  con- 
sciousness of  their  capacity  to  do  so  had  likewise  grown, 
and  the  conviction  had  strengthened  that  the  admission 
of  the  great  bulk  of  the  people  into  their  proper  share 
of  the  Government  would  be  for  the  general  advantage 
and  welfare  of  the  State  —  these  were  feelings  and 
opinions  which  could  not  be  long  held  with  sincerity 
without  passing  into  action. 

The  contemporary  literature  of  the  end  of  George 
IIL's  reign  and  the  beginning  of  George  IV.'s  reign 
testifies  to  and  describes  the  great  changes  which  had 
been  going  on  in  the  country.  Innumerable  quotations 
might  be  given,  but  a  few  from  diametrically  opposite 
sides  of  political  life  must  suffice. 


532         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

The  Quarterly  Review  (the  organ  of  Toryism),  in  an 
article  published  in  January  1820,  thus  wrote:  "From 
the  date  of  the  Revolution  (1688)  downwards  the  general 
intelligence  of  the  people  has  kept  growing,  their  facil- 
ities of  intercourse  have  multiplied,  and  their  love  of 
political  discussion  has  been  more  and  more  inflamed. 
.  .  .  The  progress  of  knowledge  neither  Ministers  nor 
Parliaments,  were  they  capable  of  entertaining  a  project 
so  detestable,  can  in  any  sensible  degree  impede.  .  .  . 
Neither  the  measures  before  us  (the  Six  Acts)  nor  any 
other  similar  regulations  will  ever  have  power  to  arrest 
the  extension  of  intellectual  light  among  the  people. 
The  voice  of  knowledge  has  gone  forth,  never  to  be 
recalled.  It  would  be  as  easy  to  restore  the  rain  to  the 
cloud  from  which  it  has  parted  as  to  re-expel  from  the 
bosom  of  an  immense  and  educated  society  all  those 
streams  of  instruction  which  have  sunk  into  it,  insinu- 
ating themselves  into  every  crevice,  reaching  every 
root,  and  mingling  with  the  moisture  of  every  rising 
spring."  * 

Another  Tory  organ  (Blackwood 's  Magazine),  in 
an  article  in  November  1824,  wrote:  "We  mean  to 
maintain  that,  in  intellect,  the  standard  is  much  higher 
than  it  was  half  a  century  ago." 

On  the  popular  side  other  authorities  may  be 
quoted.  Cobbett,  some  few  years  previously,  in  "  An 
Address  to  the  Country  Gentlemen," 2  wrote :  "  It  is 
quite  useless  for  you  to  endeavour  to  discourage  and 
check  the  progress  of  political  knowledge.  That  know- 
ledge has  gone  forth  like  the  rays  of  the  sun  bursting  a 
black  cloud  asunder ;  and  it  is  as  impossible  to  destroy 
the  effect  of  that  knowledge  as  it  would  be  to  smother 

1  Quarterly  Review,  vol.  xxii.  p.  556.  a  See   Political  Register    December 

1816. 


CHAP,  xii  THE  PROGRESS  OF  KNOWLEDGE  533 

the  rays  of  the  sun.  Even  error,  when  strongly  im- 
printed on  the  mind,  has  always  been  found  extremely 
difficult  to  efface.  What,  then,  is  to  efface  truth  when 
imprinted  on  the  mind  in  fair  and  distinct  characters  ?  " 

From  the  Whig  side  a  passage  may  be  quoted  from 
an  article  in  the  Edinburgh  Review  of  December  1818  :  * 
"  The  number  of  those  who  take  an  interest  in  political 
affairs  has  increased  with  a  rapidity  formerly  unknown. 
The  political  public  has  become  not  only  far  more 
numerous,  but  more  intelligent,  more  ardent,  more  bold, 
and  more  active.  During  the  last  thirty  years  its 
numbers  have  been  increased,  more  perhaps  than  in 
any  equal  period  since  the  Reformation,  by  the  diffusion 
of  knowledge,  by  the  pressure  of  public  distress,  and 
by  the  magnitude  of  revolutions,  sufficient  to  rouse  an 
attention  which  would  have  slumbered  in  the  noiseless 
tenor  of  common  events.  The  course  of  the  late  general 
election  has  laid  open  much  of  this  important  change. 
.  .  .  No  man  has  canvassed  a  county  in  England  who 
has  not  felt  that  political  opinions  have  penetrated  into 
places  where  they  never  before  reached." 

The  Examiner?  an  advanced  Liberal  paper,  wrote 
about  the  same  period  :  "There  are  great  causes  which 
visibly  work  effect  upon  public  opinion ;  but  it  is  also 
moved  by  small,  constant,  almost  daily,  influences. 
One  of  the  first  and  most  evident  is  the  increase  of 
knowledge  and  thought  among  the  community  at  large. 
This  increase  within  the  last  thirty  years  has  been  in  a, 
ratio  equally  extraordinary  and  extreme.  Men  now  are 
fast  ceasing  to  take  matters  for  granted.  They  no 
longer  believe  that  a  thing  should  be,  merely  because  it 
is.  They  inquire,  they  investigate,  they  analyse.  The 

1  Edinburgh  Review,  vol.   xxxi.    p.  2  See  The  Examiner,  1823,  p.  2. 

171 — "  Universal  Suffrage." 


534        THE  PLATFORM  :  ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

"  spread  of  education  has  given  them  the  means,  and  they 
are  quite  ready  to  exercise  them  fully  and  with  effect. 
What  are  the  causes  of  all  this  ?  We  regard  the  chiefest  and 
greatest  to  be  the  increase  of  trade,  in  its  broadest  sense 
— commerce,  domestic  and  external,  and  manufactures. 
Manufactures  congregate  men  together,  and  the  collision 
of  mind  is  one  of  the  greatest  condiments  to  its  advance. 
.  .  .  The  bringing  numbers  together  in  the  towns  has 
occasioned  more  'march  of  mind'  in  half  a  century 
than  agricultural  causes  would  operate  to  the  end  of 
time.  As  a  proof  of  this,  the  increased  diffusion  of 
knowledge  is  nearly  coeval  with  the  extension  of 
manufactures,  suddenly  consequent  as  it  was  upon  the 
invention  and  improvement  of  machinery,  and  the 
wonderful  facilitation  of  internal  intercourse.  Manu- 
factures necessitate  some  instruction  and  ingenuity ; 
they  nearly  all  involve  a  craft  which  must  be  learned ; 
and  the  cultivation  of  intellect  in  one  particular  tends 
to  its  expansion  in  all.  Manufactures  and  trade  have 
given  rise  to  a  vast  body  of  wealthy  men,  unconnected 
with  the  interests,  and  free  from  the  prejudices,  of  the 
hereditary  proprietors  of  land.  .  .  .  These  men,  now  a 
body  of  great,  and  every  day  increasing,  importance  in 
the  State,  have  no  old  associations  and  feelings  to  bind 
them  to  a  system  of  aristocratic  tendency." 

The  Scotsman,  an  important  Liberal  newspaper  of 
the  time,  wrote:  "An  astonishing  development  of 
intellect  has  taken  place  in  the  lower  and  middle 
ranks  of  the  people  within  the  last  thirty  years.  The 
people  are  no  longer  an  ignorant  mass.  They  have 
intellectual,  and  moral,  as  well  as  physical,  wants." 

And  from  Manchester — a  fair  type  of  many  other 
places — we  have  testimony,  dated  1823:  "During  the 
last  forty  years  the  mind  of  the  labouring  class  (taking 


CHAP,  xii  THE  GROWTH  OF  NEW  CLASSES  535 

them  as  a  body)  has  been  progressively  improving,  and, 
within  the  last  twenty  years,  has  made  an  advance  of 
centuries." 1 

These  extracts  present  a  concurrence  of  opinion  as 
to  the  universal  and  most  remarkable  progress  of 
knowledge  in  the  country.  But  it  was  not  merely  the 
change  effected  among  the  people  by  the  spread  of 
knowledge,  by  their  improving  intelligence,  by  their 
wider  information,  that  was  bringing  the  Platform  into 
prominence.  It  was  the  growth  of  great  classes  of  men 
who,  owing  to  the  restricted  basis  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  found  themselves  outside  the  pale  of  the 
Constitution. 

There  was  first  that  great  middle  class,  the  source  of 
so  much  that  was  best  in  the  country.  The  increasing 
trade  and  commerce  of  the  country  had  produced  a 
large,  commercial,  or  upper  industrial  class  of  as  highly 
educated,  intelligent,  and  wealthy  men  as  any  in  the 
kingdom.  Their  numbers  were  rapidly  increasing, 
their  wealth  becoming  ever  greater,  their  stake  in  the 
kingdom  ever  larger,  and  their  business  training 
rendering  them  ever  fitter  for  a  share  in  the  responsi- 
bilities of  government.  The  rigidity  of  the  existing 
system  of  Parliamentary  representation,  however, 
prevented  their  admission  into  the  Constitution,  the 
jealousy  of  the  upper  class  resented  their  even  aspiring 
to  it.  Accordingly,  they  found  themselves  excluded 
from  any  direct  representation  in  Parliament.  A  great 
class  such  as  this  must  of  necessity  have  the  means 
of  making  its  voice  heard,  and  of  representing  its  views 
to  the  Government  and  Legislature.  It  might  be 
condemned  to  exclusion  from  the  Constitution  :  it  could 

1  See  Guest's   Compendious  History  of  the  Cotton  Manufacture  (Manchester, 
1823). 


536        THE  PLATFORM  :  ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

not  be  condemned  to  silence.  Novel  questions  of  vast 
consequence  not  alone  to  it,  but  also  to  the  country  at 
large,  were  every  now  and  then  coming  up  for  considera- 
tion— questions  which  necessitated  public  discussion  and 
the  interchange  of  ideas  and  communication  with  their 
fellow-countrymen  and  with  the  Government.  Parlia- 
ment being  closed  against  them,  and  the  Press  being 
insufficient  for  the  purpose,  there  remained  only  the 
Platform.  The  Platform  was,  in  fact,  the  only  real 
means  these  men  had — wealthy,  intelligent,  talented, 
though  large  numbers  of  them  were — for  representing 
their  views  to  the  Government. 

Their  need  for  the  Platform  showed  itself  plainly  in 
the  years  1811  and  1812,  two  questions  having  then 
arisen  which  led  to  Parliament  being  almost  deluged 
with  Petitions,1 — the  one,  the  evil  effects  of  the  Orders 
in  Council  respecting  trade  ;  and  the  other,  the  renewal 
of  the  Charter  of  the  East  India  Company — both  of 
which  materially  affected  not  alone  their  interests  but 
the  trade  and  material  wellbeing  of  the  country.  And 
though  all  the  Petitions  sent  to  Parliament  on  these 
occasions  were  not  preluded  by  public  meetings,  still 
great  numbers  of  them  were. 

But  there  was  another  great  class,  greater  in  numbers 
and  physical  strength,  which,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
had  been  feeling  the  need  of  the  Platform  as  an  instru- 
ment of  expression.  This  was  the  great  civic  industrial 
working  -  class  population — not  the  wealthy  men  of 
capital  and  education  who  had  devised  and  started 

1  The  increase  in  the  number  of  public  petitions  presented  to  the  House  of 

Commons  shows  the  greater  demands  being  made  on  Parliament. 

Annual 
average. 

In  the  five  years  ended  1789,    880  Petitions  had  been  presented.  176 

1805,  1026                ,,                „  205 

„             1815,  4498                ,,                ,,  900 
— See  Parliamentary  Papers,  1831-32,  vol.  v.  p.  335. 


CHAP,  xii  THE  UNENFRANCHISED  537 

the  great  manufactories,  or  originated  the  industrial 
schemes  which  afforded  labour  to  the  people,  but  the 
great  mass  of  artisans  or  labourers,  skilled  and  skilless, 
hewers  of  wood,  drawers  of  water,  delvers  in  the  mines, 
the  physical  force  of  the  nation,  the  producers  of  its 
wealth,  the  developers  of  its  natural  resources. 

Great  towns  like  Manchester,  Birmingham,  Sheffield, 
and  a  host  of  others  had  doubled  and  doubled  in  size ; 
great  ports  like  Liverpool,  Bristol,  Hull,  and  Glasgow, 
had  risen  to  imperial  importance ;  great  manufacturing 
districts  had  sprung  up  as  under  the  wand  of  a  magician ; 
vast  mines  had  been  discovered  and  laid  open ;  and 
population  had  gone  on  increasing  and  increasing.  Of 
this  increased  population  the  bulk  lived  on  the  very 
verge  of  existence,  and  even  so  to  live  had  to  give  all 
its  time,  all  its  energies,  and  strength,  to  one  unceasing 
toil — happy  when  it  got  the  chance,  the  opportunity, 
of  toil. 

Yet,  though  sunk  in  the  depths  of  poverty  and 
ignorance,  and  the  vices  which  flow  from  ignorance,  and 
degraded  almost  to  the  level  of  the  machines  which  they 
tended  or  worked,  these  men  were  none  the  less  human 
beings,  with  human  wants  as  urgent,  and  capacities  as 
great,  and  rights  as  imprescriptible  as  those  of  any  other 
class  of  the  population. 

Not  for  ever  could  those  "  dingy,  dumb  millions, 
grimed  with  dust  and  sweat,"  remain  silent  in  their 
pitiable  condition  ;  still  less  when  million  was  added  to 
million.  They  felt  they  must  speak — their  circum- 
stances, their  lot,  impelled  them, — and  then  they  felt  the 
need  of  some  means  of  making  their  voice  heard.  If 
they  had  no  representative  to  depict  their  condition  to  the 
Government,  they  would  at  least  endeavour  to  tell  it  to 
the  world  themselves.  If  they  were  to  languish  and  pine 


538         THE  PLATFORM  :  ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

away,  at  least  it  were  better  to  proclaim  to  their 
countrymen  the  condition  they  were  in  than  silently  to 
go  down  into  the  great  deep  in  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence. Possibly  some  help  might  come  to  them  if  they 
were  to  cry  out,  and  cry  loud  enough. 

The  first  strivings  of  these  people  toward  the  Plat- 
form had  become  audible  in  our  history  while  the  great 
drama  of  the  French  Revolution  was  being  enacted 
before  an  awestruck  world.  But  they  were  promptly 
suppressed  by  Habeas  Corpus  Suspension  Acts,  and 
Seditious  Meetings  and  Assemblies  Acts,  and  sank  back 
into  silent  and  despairing  hopelessness.  Years  passed 
before  they  again  attempted  to  amend  their  condition ; 
then  they  broke  out  into  violence  and  outrage  (1812) ; 
but  that  being  worse  even  than  endurance,  they  again 
essayed  to  speak.  Circumstances  had  somewhat  changed 
in  the  meanwhile  ;  their  numbers  had  multiplied  ;  they 
felt  their  own  strength  more  ;  they  were  awakening  to  a 
keener  sense  of  their  rights  and  their  wrongs ;  they 
were  becoming  familiarised  to  the  Platform  by  seeing 
others  having  recourse  to  it ;  and  they  took  it  to  them- 
selves as  the  one  means  of  making  the  world  hear  of 
them  and  their  condition.  And  though  they  were  long 
left  to  themselves,  none  of  the  middle  or  upper  classes 
co-operating  with  them,  the  world  was,  nevertheless, 
made  to  hear  much  of  them.  The  more  intelligent 
among  them  sought  for  remedies  in  political  change, 
the  others  followed  them.  Their  proposals  may  have 
been  crude  and  extreme  ;  their  ideas  utterly  fallacious  ; 
their  schemes  more  likely  to  plunge  them  in  deeper  diffi- 
culties, if  that  were  possible ;  but  it  is  vividly  to  be 
remembered,  and  entirely  in  extenuation  of  their  action, 
were  extenuation  required,  that  these  people  were 
wholly  without  representatives  in  Parliament — they  were 


CHAP,  xii      THE  CIVIC  INDUSTRIAL  POPULATION  539 

without  leaders ;  they  were  ignorant  and  inexperienced  ; 
they  had  the  profoundest  and  most  justifiable  distrust 
of  the  boroughmongered,  ministerial-ridden  Parliament ; 
they  had  petitioned  that  Parliament  time  after  time, 
but  their  petitions  were  addressed  to  ears  unwilling  to 
hear. 

After  a  few  years'  enjoyment  of  the  Platform,  it  was 
snatched  from  their  grasp,  Lord  Sidmouth  and  his 
colleagues  being  anxious  to  deprive  them  of  even  the 
luxury  of  complaint.  But  the  Act  prohibiting  their 
meetings  having  expired,  they  again  returned  to  the 
Platform. 

And  now,  again,  the  same  autocratic  Ministry,  and 
the  same  boroughmonger-appointed  Parliament,  feeling 
that  privilege,  sinecures,  and  many  other  enjoyable 
monopolies,  were  being  endangered  by  the  Platform,  had 
once  more  deprived  them  of  it,  had  showed  themselves 
anxious  to  deprive  them  and  their  fellow-countrymen  of 
it  for  ever. 

But  with  two  great  classes  such  as  these,  outside 
the  pale  of  the  Constitution, — the  wealthy  and  highly- 
educated,  commercial,  and  industrial  class,  and  the  great 
civic  industrial  population  of  the  country,  both  of  them 
rapidly  increasing  in  numbers,  and  becoming  almost  the 
most  important  element  in  the  strength,  as  well  as  in 
the  wealth  of  the  country, — public  meetings  and  the 
Platform  were  a  necessity  of  public  life. 

These  two  classes  had  hitherto  held  more  or  less 
aloof  from  each  other,  and  the  agitations  of  1816,  1817, 
and  of  1819  were  almost  exclusively  the  work  of  the 
poorer  part  of  the  civil  industrial  population.  They 
had,  however,  this  in  common,  that  Parliament  was  a 
close  borough  inaccessible  to  their  representations. 
They  were  "  virtually  represented,"  they  were  told, 


540        THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

by  the  nominees  of  the  owners  of  Brackley  or  West 
Looe,  or  other  distinguished  constituencies  of  that 
sort,  and  ought  therewith  to  be  content — just  as  if 
"  virtual  representation  "  was  the  same  thing  as  actual 
representation — but  this  fiction  or  lie  of  "  virtual  repre- 
sentation," which  the  ministerial  majority  so  fondly 
cherished,  was  an  argument  only  fit  for  a  lunatic 
asylum,  if  even  for  that,  and  was  not  likely  to  be  borne 
with  much  longer.  Canning,  the  only  really  astute  and 
farseeing  statesman  of  his  time,  discerned  the  weak  spot 
in  the  existing  system,  and  had  done  his  best  to  contro- 
vert the  necessity  for  the  Platform,  or  for  Parliamentary 
reform,  by  dwelling  on  the  sufficiency  of  the  Parliament 
as  it  then  existed  for  all  popular  purposes.  In  a  speech 
which  he  delivered  at  Manchester  in  1812  (immediately 
after  his  election  for  Liverpool),  and  where  he  had  the 
splendid  audacity  to  assert  that  "  the  interests  of  un- 
represented Manchester  are  safe  among  the  represented 
interests  of  England,"  he  said :  "  Some  persons  think 
that  the  House  of  Commons  ought  to  be  all  in  all  in 
the  Constitution ;  and  that  every  portion  of  the  people 
ought  to  be  immediately,  actively,  and  perpetually  in 
contact  with  their  particular  representatives  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  If  this  were  a  true  view  of  the 
Constitution,  undoubtedly  the  present  scheme  of  repre- 
sentation is  inadequate.  But  if  this  be  true,  we  are 
living  under  a  different  Constitution  from  that  of  Eng- 
land. I  think  we  have  the  happiness  to  live  under  a 
limited  Monarchy,  not  under  a  crowned  Republic.  And 
I  think  the  House  of  Commons,  as  at  present  consti- 
tuted, is  equal  to  its  functions,  because  I  conceive  it  to 
be  the  office  of  the  members  of  the  House  of  Commons 
not  to  conduct  the  government  themselves,  but  to 
watch  over  and  control  the  Ministers  of  the  Crown ;  to 


CHAP,  xii          CANNING  ON  THE  CONSTITUTION  541 

represent  and  to  speak  the  opinion  of  the  people — to 
speak  it  in  a  voice  of  thunder  if  their  interests  are 
neglected,  or  their  rights  invaded ;  but  to  do  this,  not 
as  an  assembly  of  delegates  from  independent  states, 
but  as  a  body  of  men  chosen  from  among  the  whole 
community,  to  unite  their  efforts  in  promoting  the 
general  interests  of  the  country  at  large." l 

Six  years  later,  in  1818,  he  devoted  a  great  part  of 
a  speech  which  he  delivered  at  the  close  of  the  election 
for  Liverpool  to  the  same  subject.  He  said :  "  The 
Constitution  of  this  country  is  a  Monarchy,  controlled 
by  two  assemblies — the  one  hereditary,  and  independent 
alike  of  the  Crown  and  the  people  ;  the  other  elected  by 
and  for  the  people,  but  elected  for  the  purpose  of  con- 
trolling, and  not  of  administering,  the  government. 
The  error  of  the  reformers,  if  error  it  can  be  called,  is 
that  they  argue  as  if  the  Constitution  of  this  country 
was  a  broad  and  level  democracy,  inlaid  (for  ornament 
sake)  with  a  peerage,  and  topped  (by  sufferance)  with  a 
Crown.  If  they  say  that  for  such  a  Constitution — that 
is,  in  effect  for  an  uncontrolled  democracy — the  present 
House  of  Commons  is  not  sufficiently  popular,  they  are 
right ;  but  such  a  Constitution  is  not  what  we  have, 
or  what  we  desire.  We  are  born  under  a  Monarchy 
which  it  is  our  duty,  as  much  as  it  is  for  our  own  happi- 
ness, to  preserve,  and  which  there  cannot  be  a  shadow  of 
doubt  that  the  reforms  which  are  recommended  to  us 
would  destroy.  .  .  .2 

"  If  any  man  tell  me  that  the  popular  principle  in  the 
House  of  Commons  is  not  strong  enough  for  effective 
control  (over  the  acts  of  monarchical  power),  nor  diffused 
enough  to  ensure  sympathy  with  the  people,  I  appeal  to 
the  whole  course  of  the  transactions  of  the  last  war ;  I 

1  Canning's  Speeches,  edited  by  T.  Kaye,  p.  78.  2  Ibid.  p.  225. 


542         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

"  desire  to  have  cited  to  me  the  instances  in  which  the 
House  of  Commons  has  failed,  either  to  express  the 
matured  and  settled  opinion  of  the  nation,  or  to  convey 
it  to  the  Crown.  ...  If,  on  the  other  hand,  it  be  only 
meant  to  say  that  the  House  of  Commons  is  not  the 
whole  government  of  the  country — which,  if  all  power  be 
not  only  for  but  in  the  people,  the  House  of  Commons 
ought  to  be,  if  the  people  were  adequately  represented, — 
I  answer,  '  Thank  God  it  is  not  so  !  God  forbid  that  it 
should  ever  aim  at  becoming  so  ! ' 

"  But  they  look  far  short  of  the  ultimate  effect  of  the 
doctrines  of  the  present  day  who  do  not  see  that  their 
tendency  is  not  to  make  a  House  of  Commons  such  as, 
in  theory,  it  has  always  been  defined — a  third  branch  of 
the  Legislature,  but  to  absorb  the  legislative  and  execu- 
tive powers  into  one ;  to  create  an  immediate  delegation 
of  the  whole  authority  of  the  people — to  which,  practically, 
nothing  could,  and,  in  reasoning,  nothing  ought  to  stand 
in  opposition." 

Cleverly  as  it  was  argued,  his  contention  did  not 
meet  the  whole  case,  for  even  if  Parliament  fulfilled  in 
the  most  complete  and  perfect  manner  the  utmost  that 
the  most  perfect  theory  of  popular  representation  could 
have  demanded,  there  would  still  have  been  the  necessity 
for  the  Platform.  How  much  greater  was  the  need  for 
it,  when  the  popular  representation  which  existed  in  the 
House  of  Commons  was  only  very  limited  in  extent ; 
when  the  majority  of  even  the  popular  branch  of  the 
Legislature  was  constituted  of  the  nominees  of  borough- 
mongers,  or  of  powerful  members  of  the  aristocracy, 
and  was  under  a  control  opposed  to  all  popular  rights, 
ambitions,  or  desires. 

That  the  need  for  the  Platform  was  becoming  ever 
greater  is,  I  think,  demonstratively  proved  by  the  fact 


CHAP,  xii  THE  GROWTH  OF  MEETINGS  543 

that  the  resort  to  it  was  steadily  increasing,  in  spite  of 
disappointments  as  to  the  results,  in  spite  of  discourage- 
ment, in  spite  of  prohibition,  in  spite  of  punishments. 
Contrast  the  number  of  meetings  in  previous  agitations 
and  in  this  which  had  just  been  suppressed.  In  the  early 
days  of  the  Platform  the  meetings  were  easily  counted, 
for  a  political  meeting  then  was  a  great,  a  memorable 
event,  and  a  few  county  meetings  went  to  make  up  an 
agitation.  The  number  of  meetings  held  in  the  agita- 
tion against  the  passing  of  the  Two  Acts  was  the 
largest  of  any  in  the  last  century,  but  as  an  agita- 
tion it  could  not  be  compared  with  that  of  1819. 
Contrast,  too,  the  numbers  attending  the  meetings  of 
previous  agitations  and  this  one.  The  "  not  fewer  than 
400,  many  of  them  substantial  people,"  which  Burke 
speaks  of  with  satisfaction  as  having  been  present  at  the 
meeting  at  Aylesbury  in  1769,  the  800  which  Sir  G. 
Savile  estimated  as  being  present  at  York  in  the  same 
year — contrast  these  with  the  tens  of  thousands  that 
were  present  at  the  meeting  at  Manchester,  or  the 
thousands  at  Halifax,  York,  and  other  places.  Even 
making  every  allowance  for  exaggeration  in  the  estimate 
of  the  numbers  of  those  present,  still  it  is  beyond  con- 
troversy that  the  numbers  attending  these  later  meetings 
were  far  greater  than  had  ever  been  seen  before. 

Moreover,  as  years  had  gone  on,  the  action  of  the 
Platform  had  become  more  pertinacious,  less  intermittent 
—showing  clearly  that  the  people  were  no  longer  going 
to  let  affairs  go  on  for  any  length  of  time  without  com- 
menting on  them.  Instead  of  decades  between  Platform 
agitations,  such  as  occurred  between  the  Middlesex  Elec- 
tion Agitation,  the  Economy  Agitation,  and  the  Agitation 
consequent  on  the  French  Revolution,  the  gaps  diminished 
to  quite  short  periods,  witness  the  quickly  following 


544         THE  PLATFORM  :  ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

agitations  on  the  disgraceful  episodes  connected  with 
Lord  Melville  in  1805,  the  Duke  of  York,  Lord  Castle- 
reagh,  and  Mr.  Perceval  in  1809,  the  Anti-Corn  Law 
Agitation  of  1814  and  1815,  the  Agitations  of  1816  and 
1817,  and  lastly,  that  of  1819. 

The  debates  in  the  House  of  Commons  afford  proof 
of  this.  They  disclose  that  the  effect  of  this  more 
frequent  action  of  the  Platform  was  making  itself  felt 
there,  and  that  members  of  Parliament  were  them- 
selves becoming  aware  of  the  change  that  was  taking 
place  in  the  volume  and  strength  of  public  opinion. 
We  find  there  numerous  acknowledgments  of  the  grow- 
ing power  of  outside  opinion,  numerous  recognitions 
of  its  strength.  Thus,  speaking  in  1819,  Plunket 
said :  "  The  state  of  society  in  this  country  had, 
within  the  last  twenty  or  thirty  years,  undergone  a 
greater  change  than  from  the  period  of  the  Conquest 
until  the  time  of  which  he  spoke.  Within  that 
interval  the  public  attention  has  been  called  to  the 
consideration  of  every  measure  connected  with  the 
administration  of  the  Government  in  a  degree  hitherto 
unprecedented.  There  had  been  an  intensity  of  light 
shed  upon  all  subjects — civil,  political,  and  religious — 
so  that  measures  were  now  scanned  with  minuteness 
which  were  scarcely  looked  into,  or  at  most,  but  gener- 
ally known  before." 

Canning,  speaking  in  December  1819,  said:2 
"  Public  opinion  was  represented  by  his  honourable 
friend  (Sir  J.  Mackintosh),  and  truly  represented,  as 
possessing  now  tenfold  force  at  the  present  compared 
with  former  times.  Not  only  was  public  opinion 
advanced,  but  its  power  was  accumulated,  and  conveyed 
by  appropriate  organs,  and  made  to  bear  upon  legisla- 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  xli.  p.  1044.  3  Ibid,  p.  1547. 


CHAP,  xii     INCREASING  POWER  OF  THE  PLATFORM  545 

tion  and  government,  upon  the  conduct  of  individuals, 
and  upon  the  proceedings  of  both  Houses  of  Parliament." 

Speaking  in  February  1821,  Lord  Castlereagh  com- 
plainingly  said  :  "  There  appeared  a  growing  disposition 
on  the  part  of  the  public  to  drag  every  subject  before 
the  House — a  disposition  which  was  fed  by  the  facility 
with  which  members  lent  themselves  to  present  their 
Petitions."  And  in  the  following  year  Mr.  Robinson 
(afterwards  Lord  Goderich)  said :  "  True  it  was,  that 
offices  under  the  Crown  had  numerically  increased,  as 
compared  with  former  times ;  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
there  had  grown  up  a  counteracting  influence  which 
opposed  —  and  he  hoped  always  would  oppose  —  an 
insuperable  barrier  to  undue  influence  in  the  Crown. 
Could  any  one  deny  the  existence  of  that  counteracting 
power  which  rendered  comparatively  inefficient  in  the 
country  the  influence,  direct  or  indirect,  of  the  Crown  ? 
When  the  extension  of  universal  information  throughout 
the  country  was  considered,  a  degree  of  information 
which  gave  respectability  to  public  opinion  which  it 
had  never  before  possessed — an  intelligence  which  no 
man  half  a  century  ago  could  have  expected — was  not 
the  balance  to  Government  interest  apparent  to  every 
man  ?  Were  the  acts  of  public  men  half  a  century  ago 
scrutinised  with  the  just  severity  applied  to  them  at 
present  ?  Could  any  individual  in  eminent  station  do  a 
single  act  which  was  not  canvassed  by  the  public  at 
large  ?  And  did  not  every  public  officer  at  present  feel 
that  he  acted  under  a  responsibility  unknown  to  Min- 
isters of  former  times  ? " 1 

The  opinion  of  another  future  Prime  Minister  may 
also  be  quoted — that  of  Mr.  Peel,  expressed  not  in 
debate  but  in  a  letter  to  his  friend  Croker.  "  Do 

1  Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  vi.  (1822),  p.  1089. 


546         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

"  you  not  think  that  the  tone  of  England  —  of 
that  great  compound  of  folly,  weakness,  prejudice, 
wrong  feeling,  right  feeling,  obstinacy,  and  newspaper 
paragraphs,  which  is  called  public  opinion — is  more 
liberal,  to  use  an  odious  but  intelligible  phrase,  than 
the  policy  of  the  Government  ?  Do  not  you  think  that 
there  is  a  feeling  becoming  daily  more  general  and  more 
confirmed — that  is,  independent  of  taxation,  or  any 
immediate  cause — in  favour  of  some  undefined  change 
in  the  mode  of  governing  the  country?  It  seems  to 
me  a  curious  crisis,  when  public  opinion  never  had  such 
influence  on  public  measures,  and  yet  never  was  so 
dissatisfied  with  the  share  which  it  possessed.  It  is 
growing  too  large  for  the  channels  that  it  has  been 
accustomed  to  run  through.  God  knows !  it  is  very 
difficult  to  widen  them  exactly  in  proportion  to  the 
size  and  force  of  the  current  which  they  have  to  convey, 
but  the  engineers  that  made  them  never  dreamt  of 
various  streams  that  are  now  struggling  for  a  vent." l 

Among  the  causes  which  were  contributing  to  make 
the  public  opinion  of  the  Platform  more  powerful  was 
the  additional  publicity  given  to  its  proceedings  by 
its  fellow -labourer  in  the  struggles  for  liberty — the 
Press,  also  now  rapidly  growing  in  influence  and  power. 
Without  a  published  report  of  the  speeches  delivered 
from  the  Platform,  their  effect  was  restricted  to  the 
very  limited  number  of  persons  reached  by  the  voice 
of  the  Speaker,  and  such  reminiscences  thereof  as 
they  could  carry  away  to  retail  to  their  friends.  But 
the  wider  circulation  given  to  Platform  speeches  by 
the  Press  extended  their  effect  to  an  immeasurable 
extent,  in  some  cases  carrying  the  voice  of  the  Speaker 
to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  country. 

1  Mr.  Peel  to  Mr.  Croker,  23d  March  1820,  The  Croker  Papers,  vol.  i.  p.  170. 


CHAP,  xii  THE  PRESS  AND  THE  PLATFORM  547 

From  Prentice's  History  of  Manchester1  we  learn 
the  beginning  of  the  practice  of  publishing  reports  of 
meetings  and  speeches  in  an  important  part  of  the 
provincial  Press  :  "To  the  occurrences  of  1819,"  he 
says,  "the  people  of  Lancashire  owe  the  system  of 
giving  regular  and  full  reports  in  their  local  newspapers 
of  all  important  public  meetings  and  law  proceedings. 
Previously,  subjects  of  great  consequence  were  dismissed 
in  a  single  paragraph.  A  town's  meeting  in  Manchester 
would  be  noticed  much  as  follows :  '  A  large  meeting 
was  held  in  the  Bull's  Head  on  Thursday  last,  for  the 
resolutions  of  which  see  advertisement  in  our  front 
page.' "  And  he  adds  :  "  The  agitation  kept  up  by  the 
radicals,  and  the  wanton  stretch  of  power  exercised  by 
the  Manchester  magistracy,  had  excited  so  much  atten- 
tion that  the  conductors  of  the  London  Press  thought 
it  worth  their  while  to  send  able  reporters  to  the  scene 
of  action."  Thus  the  Press,  with  its  growing  power  and 
widening  circle  of  readers,  was  giving  its  help  to  the 
Platform,  and  the  Platform  profited  to  an  incalculable 
extent  both  in  notoriety  and  in  influence. 

Making  every  allowance  for  the  great  advances 
which  the  Platform  had  made,  it  must  be  acknowledged 
that,  further  than  bringing  an  increased  popular  influence 
to  bear  on  the  House  of  Commons,  the  Platform  had 
not  yet  secured  any  actual  control  over  the  Government, 
or  wrung  from  it  any  decisively  popular  measures  of 
reform.  But  the  real  point  of  interest  at  this  precise 
stage  of  its  history  is  not  so  much  the  actual  power  it 
had  attained,  as  the  forces  at  work  in  the  country  which 
were  making  it  powerful — forces  which  not  all  the 
ingenuity  of  Cabinet  Ministers  or  Crown  lawyers  could 
for  any  length  of  time  restrain.  The  firm  tenure  of 

1  p.  179. 


S48         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

office  by  Lord  Liverpool  and  the  packed  Parliament 
prevented  any  important  constitutional  questions  being 
dealt  with.  Ministers  had  a  sufficient  majority  in 
the  House  of  Commons  to  reject  every  measure  they 
disapproved,  and  to  secure  the  passing  of  any  measure 
they  introduced,  and  the  House  of  Lords  was  in  com- 
plete accord  with  them.  But  below  the  line  of  actual 
power  to  insist  on  Parliament  carrying  reforms,  such  as 
the  Platform  now  possesses,  there  was  considerable 
room  for  progress,  and  it  was  towards  making  good  its 
progress  here,  that  the  popular  forces  were  at  this  time 
flowing.  A  free  uncontrolled  Platform,  unrestrained  as 
to  liberty  to  meet,  and  liberty  of  speech,  was  the  first 
essential  for  securing  those  reforms  on  which  the  hearts 
of  the  people  were  set — it  would  be  the  leverage  by 
which  those  reforms  would  ultimately  be  secured. 

Though  the  Platform  was  showing  unmistakable 
evidence  of  progress,  certain  causes  of  weakness  in  ite 
efficiency  are  plainly  evident  at  this  period.  The 
principal  one  was  its  deficiency  in  one  of  the  great 
sources  of  its  later  strength — namely,  organisation. 

As  yet,  there  was  no  real  organisation  of  the  Plat- 
form. The  law  of  1799  against  Corresponding  Societies 
placed  difficulties  in  the  way,  and  except  in  1780 
a  general  organisation  had  not  been  attempted — 
indeed,  for  various  reasons,  was  not  possible.  The 
meetings  which  had  taken  place  in  different  localities 
in  1819  were  the  spontaneous  natural  outcome  of  the 
feelings  in  those  localities.  Here  and  there  there  were 
local  committees  which  got  up  a  meeting,  but  there  was 
no  general  organisation,  no  directing  head.  Major 
Cartwright  attempted  a  sort  of  organisation  by  means  of 
local  Hampden  Clubs,  but  it  was  inoperative  and  not 
worthy  the  name  of  organisation.  Sir  Francis  Burdett, 


CHAP,  xii     CAUSES  OF  WEAKNESS  IN  THE  PLATFORM      549 

the  respectable  figure-head  of  the  Kadicals  in  Parliament, 
never  aspired  to  give  agitation  a  general  organisation, 
nor  did  any  other  of  the  Eadical  members  of  Parliament. 
Peripatetic  orators,  such  as  Hunt,  Harrison,  and  Cobbett, 
drifted  only  from  place  to  place  as  they  were  asked  to 
go  to  give  eclat  to  the  meetings ;  in  no  sense  were  they 
organisers ;  scarcely  were  they  even  a  connecting  link ; 
nor  among  the  prominent  Platformers  of  the  time  does 
there  appear  to  have  been  one  capable  of  organising  the 
people  in  a  general  movement,  or  of  imposing  certain 
definite  lines  of  action  in  their  agitation  for  reform. 

Another  cause  of  weakness  which  the  Platform 
laboured  under  at  this  time,  was  the  absence  of  those  of 
the  upper  or  better  educated  classes  who  were  in  favour 
of  popular  freedom.  This  had  been  long  deplored.  In 
1812  an  interesting  article  in  the  Edinburgh  Review 
gave  expression  to  this  regret.  The  writer  asked  : 
"  Whence  arises  the  dislike  of  popular  meetings,  too  pre- 
valent not  merely  among  the  natural  enemies  of  the 
people,  but  among  many  real  friends  to  popular  rights  ? 
Their  apprehensions  arise,  we  suspect,  in  a  great  degree, 
from  fastidiousness  of  taste.  They  dislike  the  kind  of 
oratory  which  is  most  absurdly  believed  to  be  necessary 
in  popular  meetings  ;  and  they  are  still  more  averse  to 
the  unworthy  arts  which  men  too  often  practice  for  the 
sake  of  popular  favour.  ...  As  long  as  popular  meet- 
ings are  shunned  by  the  more  enlightened  members  of 
society,  they  must  want  much  of  the  respectability  and 
effect  which  they  ought  to  have  ;  and  the  fear  of  either 
failing  to  gratify  and  instruct  such  an  audience,  or  of 
descending  too  low  to  gain  this  end,  is  apt  to  scare  those 
whose  patriotism  would  otherwise  lead  them  thither,  and 
whose  talents  might  there  be  exerted  to  the  lasting 
benefit  of  their  country.  .  .  . 


550         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"  But  we  would  ask,  if  the  diffusion  of  knowledge — 
the  constant  habit  of  reading,  and  of  reading  on  political 
subjects — the  greater  morality  and  decorum  of  modern 
manners — the  peaceful  demeanour  of  men  who  bear  the 
part  of  citizens  and  not  soldiers — if  these  circumstances 
are  not  well  calculated  to  prepare  an  English  public 
meeting  for  behaving  with  dignity,  and  for  listening 
with  satisfaction  and  intelligence  to  the  discourses  of 
well-informed  and  rational  men,  who  may  treat  them, 
not  as  children,  but  as  judges,  and  give  them  credit  for 
preferring  sense  to  nonsense  ?  .  .  .  Let  us  hope,  then,  that 
the  fastidiousness  we  have  been  speaking  of,  will  no 
longer  prevent  the  most  upright  and  enlightened  men  in 
the  community  from  coming  forward  and  performing  a 
duty  sacred  and  paramount  to  the  people,  and  only  from 
misconception  disagreeable  to  themselves." l 

Again,  in  1819,  the  same  Review  returned  to  the  sub- 
ject :  "  We  take  the  most  alarming  sign  of  the  times  to 
be  the  separation  of  the  upper  and  middle  classes  of  the 
community  from  the  lower,  which  is  now  daily  and 
visibly  increasing."  2 

Lord  Erskine  also  remarked  on  it.  He  said  :  "In 
the  whole  of  the  late  proceedings  and  events,  one  of  the 
most  fatal  things  had  been  that  the  higher  orders  of  the 
people  separated  themselves  too  much  from  the  lower 
orders.  ...  In  my  opinion  the  higher  ranks  do  ill  in 
thus  seceding  from  the  lower.  If  the  latter  have  swerved 
from  their  duty,  would  it  not  be  better  for  the  former  to 
rally  them  round  the  principles  of  the  Constitution,  and 
lead  them  back  to  their  duty,  than  thus  to  make,  as  it 
were,  a  separate  cause  against  them  ?  " 

It  is  evident  too  that  there  was  a  disposition  on  the 

1  Edinburgh  Review,  vol.  xx.  p.  418,  2  Ibid.  vol.  xxxii.  p.  294. 

"  Rights  of  the  People." 


CHAP,  xii     CAUSES  OF  WEAKNESS  IN  THE  PLATFORM         551 

part  of  the  lower  classes  to  look  for  protection  and 
guidance  to  some  portion  of  the  higher  ranks  of  their 
fellow-subjects,  and  it  is  interesting  finding  this  clearly 
expressed  in  a  resolution  at  a  public  meeting. 

At  the  meeting  at  Hunslet  Moor,  near  Leeds,  on  the 
19th  July  1819,  a  resolution  was  passed:  "That  this 
meeting  cannot  but  view  with  regret  the  apathy  of  our 
should-be  leaders — that  is,  our  men  of  property — in  not 
supporting  our  mutual  rights,  etc.  We  therefore  entreat 
them  to  stand  forward,  and  espouse  the  constitutional 
rights  of  the  people,  by  endeavouring  to  obtain  a  radical 
reform  in  the  system  of  representation,  which  can  alone 
save  the  trading  and  labouring  classes  from  ruin." 

There  were  signs  that  this  neglect  of  the  Platform 
by  the  men  who  ought  to  have  been  leading  the  people 
was  not  likely  to  be  of  much  longer  duration.  It  had 
dated  from  the  French  Revolution,  but  the  action  of  the 
Government  in  connection  with  the  Peterloo  massacre 
had  disgusted  many  leading  men  of  Liberal  opinions, 
and  they  were  beginning  to  return  to  tneir  natural 
position.  The  participation  of  Lord  Fitzwilliam  and 
other  noblemen  in  the  Yorkshire  meeting  was  the  first 
evidence  of  the  change. 

Reviewing  then  the  forces  which  were  thus  in  active 
operation  at  this  period,  all  making  for  the  free  and  un- 
controlled use  of  the  Platform,  it  is  evident  that  the 
task  which  the  Government  had  attempted  of  silencing 
the  Platform  was  not  likely  to  be  successful.  The 
forces  at  work  to  defeat  the  Government  were  too 
powerful,  and  were  of  such  a  character  as  precluded 
success  in  a  campaign  against  them.  The  Government 
and  the  majority  in  Parliament  wanted  to  perpetuate 
the  existing  exclusive  system  of  government.  That  they 
were  to  govern,  and  that  the  people  were  automata  to  be 


552         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

moved  about  just  as  they  wished,  was  the  cardinal 
article  of  their  political  creed.  To  their  minds  there 
was  no  other  system  either  desirable  or  possible — only 
let  that  system  go  on — that  was  all  they  wanted.  But 
it  would  not  go  on — at  least  not  for  much  longer. 

It  was  doomed — doomed  by  the  growing  numbers  of 
the  people,  doomed  by  the  increasing  education  and 
growing  wealth  of  the  people,  doomed  by  the  growth  of 
ideas  originating  far  back  in  the  history  of  our  country, 
but  obtaining  an  immense  impetus  by  the  lessons  of  the 
sounder  better  part  of  the  French  revolutionary  teaching, 
and  by  the  instruction  of  some  of  the  most  enlightened 
minds  at  home.  The  system  was  too  inequitable — too 
unfair,  too  narrow — to  be  much  longer  possible.  Once 
the  real  power  in  the  nation  had  shifted  from  inside 
Parliament  to  outside  Parliament,  no  long  time  could 
elapse  before  that  power  would  actually  assert  itself, 
and  exact  from  Parliament  what  that  Parliament  was 
not  prepared  to  give. 


CHAPTER    XIII 

THE    EMANCIPATION    OF    THE    PLATFORM 

PUBLIC  meetings  prohibited,  except  such  as  were  con- 
vened and  approved  by  the  "  powers  that  be,"  or  held 
in  a  house  or  building ;  public  speech  free  only  to  the 
extent  that  the  most  ignorant,  bigotted,  or  intolerant 
Justice  of  the  Peace  might,  in  his  graciousness,  please  to 
permit ;  the  right  of  petition,  which  had  been  wrung 
from  reluctant  sovereigns,  practically  annihilated — such, 
under  a  Tory  Ministry,  and  an  unreformed  Parliament, 
was  the  spectacle  which  England — the  vaunted  mother 
of  liberty,  the  boasted  home  of  freedom,  of  free  speech, 
and  of  a  free  Press — presented  to  the  world  at  the  end  of 
the  second  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century — little  more 
than  seventy  years  ago. 

It  is  hard  to  realise  that  such  should  have  been  the 
state  of  things  so  short  a  time  since — within  the  lifetime 
of  many  men  now  living — yet  so  it  was,  and  it  is  the 
more  remarkable  when  we  consider  the  absence  of  jus- 
tification for  it.  No  justification  w>as  afforded  by  a 
breakdown  or  insufficiency  of  the  ordinary  law,  or  from 
any  inability  to  put  it  in  force.  The  law  was  in  effective 
working  order.  If  the  meetings  were  illegal,  as  was  so 
strenuously  contended,  the  people  attending  them  could 
have  been  prosecuted  for  attending  illegal  meetings.  If 


554         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  11 

anything  seditious  was  said  at  them  from  the  Platform, 
the  speaker  could  have  been  easily  rendered  amenable 
for  seditious  libel,  or,  following  the  precedent  of  Yorke's 
case,  seditious  conspiracy.  There  was  no  difficulty  in 
framing  an  indictment  that  would  bring  an  offender 
within  the  meshes  of  the  law,  and  juries,  as  constituted 
then,  were  by  no  means  too  prone  to  acquit  persons 
charged  before  them.  Nor  had  Ministers  any  justifica- 
tion from  the  circumstances  of  the  time.  Their  great 
exemplar — Pitt — whom  they  were  so  slavishly  following, 
had  at  least  some  for  his  repressive  legislation, — the 
panic  begotten  by  the  horrors  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion ;  the  war  with  France,  in  which  England's  existence 
was  at  stake  ;  the  silly  coquetting  of  certain  Societies  in 
England  with  foreign  enemies ;  the  wild  excitement  of 
the  times  ;  the  novelty  of  large  public  meetings.  Lords 
Liverpool,  Sidmouth,  and  Castlereagh,  almost  a  genera- 
tion later,  had  not  the  shadow  of  an  excuse  for  their 
policy.  The  horrors  of  the  French  Revolution  had  faded 
into  the  past;  England,  powerful  and  self-confident, 
was  at  peace  with  all  the  world ;  there  '  was  no  in- 
triguing with  foreign  foes ;  there  were  no  Corresponding 
Societies  or  other  organisation  for  agitation  ;  large  meet- 
ings of  the  people  had  become  more  or  less  familiar  to 
the  general  public ;  and  in  no  case  had  there  been  dis- 
turbance or  disorder,  or  breach  of  the  peace  at  any 
meetings,  except  where  it  had  been  provoked  or  actually 
caused  by  the  authorities. 

And  now,  there  was  a  new  King  upon  the  throne — 
George  IV., — but  only  nominally  a  new  King,  for  as 
Regent  he  had  been  virtually  King  for  many  years  ;  and 
the  people  could  derive  little  hope  of  a  change  of  policy 
from  the  nominal  change  in  the  occupant  of  the  throne, 
for  it  was  his  hand  that  had  welded  the  final  link  in  the 


CHAP,  xui          THE  CATO  STREET  CONSPIRACY  555 

fetters  that  now  bound  them.  Once  a  Liberal,  and  a 
boon  companion  of  the  "  man  of  the  people,"  he,  like 
many  others,  had  been  frightened  by  the  French  Revolu- 
tion from  his  Liberal  leanings ;  gradually  he  had  fallen 
in  with  Pitt's  repressive  legislation.  From  "  The  Two 
Acts  "  he  had  passed  on  to  "  The  Four  Acts,"  and,  with 
accelerated  strides,  from  "  The  Four  Acts "  to  "  The 
Six  Acts "  ;  and  now  he  was  actually  King,  and  less 
likely  than  ever  to  side  with  the  people  against  a  Tory 
Ministry.  And  then,  as  if  to  confirm  him  and  his 
Ministers  in  their  policy,  within  less  than  a  month  of 
his  accession  to  the  throne,  an  event  happened  which 
appeared  to  afford  justification  for  "The  Six  Acts." 
The  Cato  Street  Conspiracy  came  to  light.  It  was  the 
work  of  Thistlewood — whose  name  has  already  been 
mentioned — and  some  confederates,  and  it  was  aimed 
a.t  the  lives  of  the  Ministers,  and  the  overthrow  of  the 
Government.  Information  of  the  plot  having  reached 
the  Government,  the  conspirators  were  arrested,  most  of 
them  forthwith  in  a  loft  in  Cato  Street,  the  remainder 
soon  after.  The  plot  was  seized  on  by  the  King  and 
King's  Ministers  as  a  defence  of  their  policy.  "  The 
flagrant  and  sanguinary  conspiracy  which  has  lately 
been  detected,"  said  the  King  in  his  speech  proroguing 
Parliament,  "  must  vindicate  to  the  whole  world  the 
justice  and  expediency  of  those  measures  to  which  you 
judged  it  necessary  to  resort  in  defence  of  the  laws  and 
Constitution  of  the  kingdom." 

There  is  not,  however,  any  justification  for  condemn- 
ing the  Platform  on  account  of  this  event,  much  less  for 
silencing  public  discussion  and  preventing  public  meet- 
ings in  the  country.  Thistlewood  had  taken  some  part 
in  the  first  meeting  at  Spa  Fields  in  1817  and  in  the  riot, 
and  had  been  tried  for  the  latter  on  the  absurdly  exagger- 


556         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

ated  charge  of  high  treason,  and  been  acquitted ;  but  he 
was  not  a  Platform  orator  or  agitator,  nor  was  he  of  the 
type  to  be  contented  with  meetings  and  speeches.  In- 
deed, as  has  already  been  shown,  he  was  repudiated  by 
the  man  most  identified  with  the  Platform  at  the  time- 
Henry  Hunt.  There  is,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  not  one 
tittle  of  evidence  to  show  that  the  Platform  had  incited 
him  and  his  fellow  conspirators  to  the  action  they  con- 
templated, or  that  it  had  in  any  way  encouraged  them 
in  their  infamous  designs ;  and  even  if  it  could  have 
been  distinctly  proved  that  the  Platform  was  directly 
responsible  for  this  result,  that  would  not  have  been  a 
justification  for  depriving  the  whole  population  of  Great 
Britain  of  the  right  of  public  meeting  and  free  speech. 

It  must  have  seemed  to  Ministers  an  adverse  fate 
which  again  necessitated  a  general  election,  with  its 
attendant  meetings  and  Platformings,  just  after  they 
had  exhausted  their  ingenuity  in  devising  means  for  the 
prevention  of  meetings,  and  the  suppression  of  free 
speech.  But  a  new  King  having  come  to  the  throne, 
a  new  Parliament  had  to  be  elected,  and  the  existing 
Parliament  was  dissolved  on  the  28th  February  1820. 

Of  the  general  election  little  need  be  said.  No 
special  feature  distinguished  it  from  many  that  had  gone 
before  ;  no  sensible  change  took  place  in  the  composition 
of  parties  in  the  House  of  Commons.  The  borough- 
mongers  held  the  key  of  the  Parliamentary  position, 
Scotland,  with  but  two  exceptions,  supporting  them. 

The  election  is,  I  think,  mainly  remarkable  for  a 
speech  made  by  Canning,  which  must  be  regarded  as  a 
most  important  event  in  the  history  of  the  Platform, 
for  it  was  an  acknowledgment  or  an  avowal  by  a 
Cabinet  Minister 1  of  his  relation  to  his  constituents 

1  He  was  President  of  the  Board  of  Control 


CHAP,  xin    A  CABINET  MINISTER  ON  THE  PLATFORM       557 

— an  acknowledgment  of  a  relationship  far  closer 
than  had  ever  been  avowed  before.1  Speaking  at  a 
public  dinner  at  Liverpool  in  March  1820,  he  said : 
"  With  respect  to  the  transactions  of  the  last  short 
session  of  Parliament  previous  to  the  dissolution,  I 
feel  that  it  is  my  duty,  as  your  representative,  to  render 
to  you  some  account  of  the  part  which  I  took  in  that 
assembly  to  which  you  sent  me — I  feel  it  my  duty  also 
as  a  member  of  the  Government  by  which  those  measures 
were  advised.  Upon  occasions  of  such  trying  exigency 
as  those  which  we  have  lately  experienced,  I  hold  it  to 
be  of  the  very  essence  of  our  free  and  popular  Constitu- 
tion, that  an  unreserved  interchange  of  sentiment  should 
take  place  between  the  representative  and  his  con- 
stituents ;  and  if  it  accidentally  happens,  that  he  who 
addresses  you  as  your  representative,  stands  also  in 
the  situation  of  a  responsible  adviser  of  the  Crown, 
I  recognise  in  that  more  rare  occurrence  a  not  less 
striking  or  less  valuable  peculiarity  of  that  Constitution, 
under  which  we  have  the  happiness  to  live,  by  which  a 
Minister  of  the  Crown  is  brought  into  contact  with  the 
great  body  of  the  community ;  and  the  service  of  the 
King  is  shown  to  be  a  part  of  the  service  of  the  people." 
It  is  the  first  avowal  of  a  Minister  as  to  the  right  of  his 
constituents  to  hear  him,  and  it  set  an  example  which 
other  statesmen,  coming  after  him,  might  find  it  to  their 
advantage  to  follow. 

The  election  over,  it  might  be  assumed  that  with 
the  Seditious  Meetings  Act  in  force  public  meetings 
and  speeches  would  have  been  over  also,  but  no  very 
great  length  of  time  elapsed  after  the  general  election 
before  the  Platform  revived.  And  here  a  very  notable 
difference  must  be  pointed  out  between  the  result 

1  Therry's  Canning,  vol.  vi.  pp.  369,  370. 


558         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

of  the  suppression  of  the  Platform  by  Pitt  in  the  end 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  its  suppression  by 
Lord  Liverpool's  government  at  the  end  of  the  second 
decade  of  the  nineteenth  century,  for  it  is  a  differ- 
ence which  very  strongly  marks  the  progress  the  Plat- 
form had  made  in  the  intervening  period.  On  the 
former  occasion  the  Platform  was  absolutely  and  com- 
pletely suppressed,  and  for  many  years  no  attempt 
whatever  was  made  to  revive  it.  But  in  the  latter  case 
the  revival  of  the  Platform  began  almost  immediately 
after  its  suppression.  It  is  true  that  the  revival  was 
not  the  same  in  its  character  as  the  meetings  which 
had  been  suppressed  and  prohibited,  but  the  revival 
nevertheless  showed  that,  in  one  form  or  another,  the 
Platform  had  become  an  institution  in  the  country 
which  would  be  had  recourse  to,  if  not  by  one,  then 
by  some  other  section  of  the  people  who  needed  it  to 
speak  by. 

But  if  the  revival  in  1820  differed  in  one  respect 
from  the  revival  in  1805,  it  most  curiously  resembled  it 
in  two  others — first,  that  suppressed  among  the  civic 
industrial  population  it  was  revived  by  the  county  free- 
holders and  electors  in  the  large  cities  ;  and  next,  that 
the  primary  cause  of  its  revival  was,  once  more,  iniquity 
in  high  places. 

The  scandal  which,  after  Pitt's  suppression,  awoke 
the  Platform  into  life  and  action  concerned  the  public 
life  of  no  less  a  person  than  one  of  the  principal 
Ministers  of  State ;  the  scandal  on  the  present  occasion 
concerned  the  private  life  of  even  greater  personages — 
the  greatest  in  the  land — the  King  and  the  Queen. 
Personal  cases  are  often  more  hotly  espoused  by  the 
general  public  than  political  principles,  and  this  case 
was  to  afford  an  illustration  of  this  circumstance. 


CHAP,  xin  THE  ROYAL  SCANDAL  559 

Popular  attention  was  quickly  riveted  on  the  quarrel, 
and  every  means  was  taken  of  showing  the  interest  feltr 
in  it.  Into  the  details  of  that  unsavoury  business  it  is 
unnecessary  to  enter.  The  King,  whose  moral  character 
partook  very  much  of  the  description  applied  by  his 
father  to  the  Wilkes'  agitation,  that  of  "outrageous 
licentiousness," l  had  separated  himself  from  his  wife, 
and  having  reason  to  believe  that  her  conduct  since 
their  separation,  while  she  was  travelling  abroad,  was 
not  above  reproach,  he,  regardless  of  his  own  notorious 
delinquencies,  and  scandalous  immoralities,  determined, 
if  possible,  to  get  a  divorce  from  her.  On  his  accession 
to  the  throne,  his  wife,  now  become  Queen  of  England, 
returned  home  to  claim  her  position  as  such.  Under 
the  circumstances  of  the  case  there  could  be  little 
popular  sympathy  with  the  King.  Sympathy,  in  fact, 
went  the  other  way ;  and  on  the  Queen's  arrival  at 
Dover,  on  the  5th  June,  she  was  received  with  great 
enthusiasm ;  her  journey  to  London  was  a  sort  of 
triumphal  progress,  and  vast  crowds  assembled  in  Lon- 
don to  receive  her.  The  public  considered  that  she  was 
being  ill-treated  and  persecuted,  and  loudly  expressed 
their  feelings  in  her  behalf.  How  great  the  interest 
was  may  be  inferred  from  the  leading  article  in  The 
Times  of  7th  June,  which  began  :  "  The  Queen  of  Eng- 
land now  so  occupies  all  thoughts  that  it  would  be 
difficult  to  us,  and  offensive  to  the  nation,  to  affect  to 
speak  on  any  other  subject.  The  Queen  of  England  is 
at  present  everything  with  everybody." 

As  usual  now  in  times  of  popular  movement,  the 
Platform  was  enlisted  to  express  the  popular  voice,  nor 
were  the  provisions  of  the  Seditious  Meetings  Prevention 

1  See  Correspondence  between  George  III.  and  Lord  North — the  King  to  North 
16th  April  1769. 


560         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

Act  sufficient  to  prevent  its  use.  The  Lord  Mayor, 
Aldermen,  and  Livery  of  London  lost  no  time  in  setting 
the  example,  and  assembled  in  Common  Hall,  and 
adopted  an  Address  to  her  of  welcome  and  sympathy.1 

On  the  30th  June  a  meeting  was  held  of  the  in- 
habitants of  the  borough  of  Southwark,  and  an  Address 
to  the  Queen  was  adopted.  The  proceedings  at  it 
showed  how  stringently  the  provisions  of  the  Seditious 
Meetings  Act  were  enforced.  The  High  Bailiff  con- 
vened the  meeting;  he  was  very  strict  in  preventing 
speakers  wandering  from  the  exact  subject  which  had 
been  stated  in  the  requisition  for  convening  the  meet- 
ing. He  said,  "  He  conceived  that  the  requisition  bound 
the  meeting  to  the  precise  address,  and  that  extraneous 
matter  could  not  be  introduced."  He  produced  the 
Seditious  Meetings  Act,  and  observed  that  a  clause  in 
it  "warranted  him  in  stating  what  he  had,  and  provided 
many  severe  restrictions  against  digressing  from  the 
particular  subject  of  a  requisition."  This  speech  was 
received  with  "  loud  hissing." 2 

On  the  4th  July  a  numerous  meeting  of  the  in- 
habitants of  Westminster  was  held,  and  an  Address  to 
the  Queen  adopted,  and  speeches  were  made  by  Sir  F. 
Burdett  and  Mr.  Hobhouse  and  Thelwall.3 

On  1 7th  July  there  was  a  meeting  of  the  Court  of  Com- 
mon Council,  and  Petitions  to  the  House  of  Lords  and 
House  of  Commons  were  adopted  in  favour  of  the  Queen.4 

A  large  meeting  of  the  inhabitants  of  Middlesex  was 
held.  Resolutions  of  sympathy  with  the  Queen  were 
passed,  and  an  Address  adopted.  Many  speeches  were 
made.  The  report  of  the  proceedings  occupied  four 
and  a  half  columns  of  The  Times.6 

1  The  Times,  7th  June.  *  Ibid.,  5th  July.  8  Ibid.,  9th  August. 

2  Ibid.,  1st  July  1820.  4  Ibid.,  18th  July. 


CHAP,  xni     THE  PLATFORM  ON  THE  ROYAL  SCANDAL      561 

On  the  19th  a  county  meeting  for  Norfolk  was  held 
at  Norfolk,  largely  attended  by  many  gentlemen  of  the 
first  respectability.  A  Petition  to  the  House  of  Com- 
mons was  adopted  against  the  Bill  against  the  Queen.1 

But  it  was  not  without  opposition  that  meetings 
were  held.  Every  difficulty  was  thrown  in  the  way — 
Mayors,  Magistrates,  and  High  Sheriffs  refusing  to  com- 
ply with  the  requisitions  to  convene  meetings,  no  matter 
how  respectably  signed.  At  Kochester  the  Mayor  re- 
fused to  convene  a  meeting ;  in  Suffolk  the  application 
to  convene  a  county  meeting  was  unsuccessful. 

The  people  followed  with  the  keenest  interest  the 
progress  of  the  proceedings  in  Parliament  against  the 
Queen — the  trial  in  the  House  of  Lords — the  Bill  of 
degradation  and  divorce.  The  agitation  was  crowned 
with  success  so  far  that  the  Divorce  Bill  was  abandoned 
by  the  Government,  Lord  Liverpool  acknowledging  that 
their  action  was  partly  due  to  the  state  of  public  feel- 
ing. This  success  did  not  check  the  tide  of  public 
sympathy  with  the  Queen.  Illuminations  and  rejoic- 
ings were  held  all  over  the  country,  and  innumerable 
Addresses  poured  in  on  her,  presented  sometimes  by 
deputations  and  large  crowds. 

In  London  three  large  "  Ward  "  meetings  were  held 
to  express  sympathy  with  her;  and  the  ladies  of  London, 
Westminster,  and  Southwark,  held  a  large  meeting 
at  Freemason's  Hall  for  the  purpose  of  congratulating 
her  upon  the  close  of  her  prosecution.  As  the  summer 
and  autumn  went  on  a  large  number  of  public  meetings 
were  held — held  sometimes  in  spite  of  objecting  High 
Sheriffs,  being  convened  instead  by  the  requisite  number 
of  magistrates.2 

In    Berkshire    the    Sheriff    refused    to    convene    a 

1  The  Times,  21st  August  2  Ibid.,  27th  September. 


562         THE  PLATFORM:   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PARTII 

county  meeting.  It  was  forthwith  called  by  eleven 
magistrates,  with  Lord  Folkestone  at  their  head.1 

In  Durham  the  same  thing  happened,  and  here  Lord 
Grey  and  several  other  magistrates  convened  the  meet- 
ing. It  was  held  on  the  13th  December.  "The  crowds 
that  attended  this  meeting  were  distinguished  by  rank, 
influence,  and  property  in  the  county ;  by  talent, 
acquirements,  and  respectability," — a  proof  that  the 
natural  leaders  of  the  people  were  returning  to  their 
allegiance  to  the  public.  An  Address  to  the  King 
was  adopted,  praying  him  to  restore  the  Queen's 
name  to  the  Liturgy,  etc. ;  and  Lord  Grey  made  a 
long  speech.  He  said,  referring  to  the  conduct  of  the 
assembly  he  was  addressing,  "  Let  all  England  follow 
the  example  they  were  setting.  Let  them  approach  the 
throne  like  men  who  '  know  their  rights,  and  knowing 
dare  maintain,'  against  the  threats  of  power  and  the 
blandishments  of  corruption,  sober  but  enthusiastic, 
firm  but  prudent,  moderate  but  resolute  and  fearless, 
and  England  may  yet  be  saved."2 

Even  Edinburgh  succeeded  in  holding  a  meeting, 
"  agreeably  to  a  public  advertisement  in  the  news- 
papers." 3  It  was  called  in  order  to  petition  the  Crown 
to  dismiss  his  Ministers,  and  it  was  held  in  "  the 
Pantheon," — some  4QOO  persons  being  in  it.  Lord 
Cockburn,  in  giving  an  account  of  it,  says :  "  This 
meeting  was  distinguished  from  the  one  in  1814  on  the 
Slave  Trade,  the  one  in  1816  on  the  Property  Tax,  and 
the  one  in  1817  on  the  North  Bridge  Buildings,  by  its 
being  purely  political,  and  in  direct  and  avowed  opposi- 
tion to  the  hereditary  Toryism  of  Government.  It  was 

1  The  Times,  19th  December.  3  See    The    Times,  22d    December 

2  The  Times,  18th  December  1820,       1820. 
wrote:  ;<We  most  cordially  join  with 

this  prayer." 


CHAP,  xui  THE  REVIVAL  OF  THE  PLATFORM  563 

the  first  modern  occasion  on  which  a  great  body  of 
respectable  persons  had  met,  publicly  and  peaceably,  in 
Edinburgh,  to  assail  this  fortress." l 

Jeffrey  spoke,  "and  sealed  the  character  of  the 
meeting  by  an  admirable  address,"  and  the  proposed 
Petition  was  adopted. 

On  30th  December  (1820)  a  county  meeting  of 
Gloucester  was  held  for  the  purpose  of  petitioning  the 
King  to  dismiss  from  his  councils  his  present  unworthy 
Ministers,  and  a  vote  of  censure  was  passed  on  the 
Sheriff  for  refusing  to  convene  the  meeting.2 

At  a  meeting  which  was  held  at  Derby 3 — "  the  most 
numerous  ever  known" — for  the  purpose  of  adopting 
an  Address  to  the  King,  the  Duke  of  Devonshire  at- 
tended, and  proposed  a  rival  Address,  which  was  carried, 
praying  the  King  to  dismiss  his  Ministers.  This  lead 
given,  other  meetings  quickly  followed  suit,  and  at 
several  county  meetings  a  totally  different  Address  was 
adopted  than  that  which  the  meetings  had  been  con- 
vened to  adopt.  Here  was  another  contingency  not 
foreseen  by  Ministers  in  their  Seditious  Meetings  Preven- 
tion Act ;  and  it  is  clear  from  these  proceedings  that 
even  those  who  attended  county  meetings  were  not 
disposed  to  submit  to  the  restraints  imposed  on  their 
rights  by  the  Government. 

It  was  a  great  revival  of  the  Platform,  in  spite  of 
''  The  Six  Acts  "  ;  and  it  was  only  possible  from  the  fact 
that  many  of  the  principal  Whigs  of  the  country, — men 
of  position  and  property,  who  had  shrunk  from  the 
popular  cause  in  affright  at  the  horrors  of  the  French 
Revolution,  and  deserted  Liberalism — had  now  become 
disgusted  with  the  policy  of  the  Government  and  the  treat- 

1  Cockburn's    Memorials,     p.    376.  2  See  The  Examiner,  1821,  p.  14. 

See  also  his  Life  of  Lord  Jeffrey,  p.  261.  3  Ibid.  p.  29. 


564         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  11 

ment  of  the  Queen,  and  were  beginning  to  return  to  the 
Liberal  principles  which  they  had  for  a  time  abandoned. 

There  was,  however,  a  deeper  influence  created  in  the 
public  mind  by  this  discreditable  business. 

Place  has  thus  described  it : l  "  The  absurd,  and  cruel, 
because  absurd,  persecution  of  his  wife,  and  the  excitation 
it  caused  all  over  the  island,  made  the  middle  and 
working  classes  of  the  people  much  more  familiar  with 
royalty  and  the  privileged  aristocracy  than  they  had 
ever  before  been.  They  were  made  to  understand,  and 
persuaded  to  believe,  that  they  understood  these  matters 
much  better  than  they  had  previously  done,  and  this,  in 
their  own  opinion,  raised  them  nearer  to  a  level  with  the 
privileged  classes,  and  brought  these  classes  down  to  a 
level  nearer  to  their  own.  It  was  a  step  towards  demo- 
cracy which  can  never  be  retraced.  .  .  . 

"  The  persecution  of  the  Queen  induced  her  to  throw 
herself  upon  the  people  ;  .  .  .  and  they  made  such 
demonstration  in  her  behalf  as  neither  she,  nor  they 
themselves,  nor  indeed  any  one  anticipated,  or  at  all 
supposed  would  be  made.  Multitudes  of  all  ranks 
below  the  peerage,  even  to  the  bare -legged  sailors 
along-shore  below  London  Bridge,  costermongers, 
and  common  porters,  went  in  processions  to  Brand  en- 
burgh  House,  saw  the  Queen,  and  heard  her  converse. 
She  was  the  very  woman  herself,  beyond  all  other 
women,  to  satisfy  the  inquisitive  people  that  the  dis- 
tinction claimed  by  high  rank  was  merely  fictitious. 
She  was  vulgarly  familiar  and  commonplace  in  her 
language  and  deportment,  much  less  genteel  in  all 
respects  than  many  of  the  well-dressed  women  who  went 
to  her  in  the  processions.  .  .  .  Those  of  the  aristocracy 
who  attended  the  Queen  had  little  either  in  their 

1  Place,  MSS.,  27,789,  p.  123. 


CHAP,  xni    FALL  OF  ROYALTY  IN  PUBLIC  ESTIMATION     565 

manners  or  appearance  to  produce  any  favourable  im- 
pression on  the  multitudes  whom  day  after  day  they  had 
to  introduce  to  the  presence  of  the  Queen.  Eoyalty  was 
judged  of  by  the  Queen,  and  aristocracy  by  the  noble- 
men and  ladies  in  her  suite,  and  both  fell  amazingly  in 
the  estimation  of  the  people. 

"  The  conduct  of  the  King,  and  of  the  aristocracy 
who  took  part  with  him,  or  refrained  from  taking  part 
with  the  Queen,  was  considered  as  extremely  depraved ; 
and  as  nearly  all  the  aristocracy  were  included  in  this 
definition,  so  all  were  reprobated  and  condemned,  and 
the  impression  thus  made  to  their  disadvantage  has 
been  ever  since  increasing." 

It  is  unnecessary  to  pursue  this  topic  further.  The 
miserable  strife  ended  with  the  death  of  the  Queen  in 
August  1821,  leaving  among  numerous  indirect  results 
this  most  important  one,  that  it  brought  the  Platform  to 
life  and  vigour  just  after  the  almost  fatal  wound  received 
from  the  hands  of  the  Government  by  "  the  Six  Acts." 

Another  influence  which  helped — though  in  a  far 
milder  degree — towards  the  revival  of  the  Platform  at 
this  time  must  also  be  mentioned.  This  was  the  con- 
dition of  the  agricultural  population,  then  miserable 
in  the  extreme.  Numerous  meetings  were  held  in 
different  parts  of  England  during  the  winter  of  1820-21, 
and  resolutions  passed  and  Petitions  adopted  setting 
forth  the  difficulties  and  distresses  of  the  agriculturists. 
The  House  of  Commons,  sympathetic  always  with  any- 
thing affecting  the  value  of  land,  on  the  presentation  of 
the  Petitions  from  these  meetings,  at  once  appointed  a 
Committee  of  Inquiry  on  the  subject,  and  for  a  time  the 
Platform  here  was  lulled  to  rest.1 

1  See  Edinburgh  Review,  vol.  xxxvi.  on  depressed  State  of  Agriculture  in 
p.  452,  February  1822  ;  and  Report  1821,  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  v. 
from  Committee  of  House  of  Commons  1821. 


566         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

It  is  a  fact  very  clearly  showing  itself  in  the  history 
of  the  Platform,  that  just  as  Parliament  was  often  en- 
couraged and  stimulated  by  the  Platform,  so  did  the 
Platform  often  derive  stimulus  and  encouragement  from 
proceedings  in  Parliament.  The  proceedings  in  Parlia- 
ment during  the  session  of  1821  were  admirably  calcu- 
lated to  inspirit  the  Platform — the  subject  of  Parlia- 
mentary reform  being  kept  well  before  Parliament.  On 
the  17th  April  a  great  number  of  Petitions  in  favour 
of  it  were  presented,  and  Mr.  Lambton  moved  "  That 
the  House  do  resolve  itself  into  a  Committee  of  the 
whole  House  to  consider  the  state  of  the  representa- 
tion of  the  people  in  Parliament,"1  unavailingly,  of 
course,  but  still  usefully. 

On  the  8th  May  1821  Mr.  Lennard  moved  the 
repeal  of  two  of  the  Six  Acts, — the  Seditious  Meetings 
Act,  and  the  punishment  of  Libels  Act,2 — and  some  good 
points  were  made  in  the  debate. 

"  It  was  the  energy,  the  boldness  of  a  man's  mind 
which,  prompting  him  to  speak,  not  in  private,  but  in 
large  and  popular  assemblies,  that  constituted  the 
principle  of  freedom. 

"  It  was  that  principle  which  gave  life  to  liberty,  and 
without  it  the  human  character  was  a  stranger  to  free- 
dom. Would  silence  ensure  security  ?  Did  they  suppose 
that  they  made  men  forget  their  grievances  when  they 
made  them  silent  ?  No ;  if  a  man  who  feels  himself 
aggrieved  is  prevented  from  declaring  his  sentiments  in 
a  constitutional  way,  he  is  forced  to  other  expedients 
for  redress." 

Mr.  Abercromby  drew  attention  to  the  fact  that 
"  meetings  like  those  which  had  taken  place  at  Man- 
chester, Birmingham,  and  Sheffield,  had  been  declared 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  v.  p.  360,  1821.  2  Ibid.  p.  554. 


CHAP,  xni  AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS  567 

illegal  by  the  Courts  of  Justice,  and  therefore  there  was 
no  pretence  for  continuing  these  laws. 

But  no  arguments  or  considerations  could  induce 
the  Government  to  repeal  these  Acts ;  and  then,  on 
the  9th  of  May,1  Lord  J.  Russell  brought  forward  the 
subject  of  Parliamentary  reform,  describing  the  existing 
corruption  in  Parliament  and  at  Parliamentary  elec- 
tions ;  and  referring  to  the  disturbances  in  certain  of 
the  large  towns  he  attributed  them  to  the  fact  of 
those  towns  having  no  representatives  in  Parliament. 

In  the  same  month2  Mr.  Bennett  moved  to  bring 
in  a  Bill  for  the  better  securing  the  independence  of 
Parliament,  thus  bringing  into  notice  again  the  nomin- 
ation of  the  placemen  who  fought  the  ministerial 
battles ;  and,  before  the  session  was  ended,  Mr.  Hume 
brought  forward  the  ever-interesting  subject  of  economy 
and  retrenchment,  his  object  being  to  enforce  them  in 
every  department  of  the  public  expenditure — a  subject 
becoming  of  ever  deeper  consequence,  the  expenditure 
of  the  country  having  risen  from  £16,000,000  in  1792 
to  £70,000,000  in  1821.3 

Thus,  one  way  or  another,  the  subjects  most  engag- 
ing the  more  advanced  and  intelligent  public  opinion  of 
the  time  were  kept  before  the  public,  and  the  Platform 
was  given  fresh  material  for  agitation. 

The  agricultural  distress  continued  severe,  and 
early  in  January  (1822)  county  meetings  were  held 
in  Monmouthshire  and  in  Norfolk.  As  this  form  of 
distress  affected  the  landowners  more  than  any  other, 
a  large  number  of  them  took  a  prominent  and  active 
part  in  the  meetings,  and  avowed  themselves  advocates 
of  retrenchment,  which  was  strongly  insisted  on,  Hume's 

1  Hansard,  vol.  v.  p.  604,  9th  May.  3  Ibid.  p.  1345,  27th  June. 

2  Ibid.  p.  1054. 


568         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

speeches  even  being  referred  to  with  approbation.  At 
the  Suffolk  meeting  on  29th  January  1822  two  dukes 
(Grafton  and  Norfolk),  four  lords,  and  three  baronets 
all  spoke. 

The  agricultural  distress  and  financial  pressure  which 
was  thus  occupying  the  Platform  led  naturally  to  the 
consideration  of  remedies,  and  so  by  degrees  the 
desirability  of  Parliamentary  reform  came  to  be 
mooted.  At  the  Suffolk  meeting  a  Mr.  Merest 
said :  "  The  lavish  expenditure  of  Government  had 
caused  all  the  mischief;  that  had  been  sanctioned 
by  the  House  of  Commons,  and  without  a  reform, 
therefore,  no  cure  would  ensue.  The  only  efficient 
remedy  was  to  make  the  House  of  Commons  what  it 
ought  to  be — the  representative  of  the  people,  and  a 
check  upon  Government,  instead  of  being  what  it  now 
is — the  representative  of  Government  and  a  check  on 
the  people."  Meetings  followed  in  Devon,  Surrey, 
Worcestershire,  Westminster,  Middlesex,  Cornwall,  Cam- 
bridge, and  Bedford,  and  speech  after  speech  at  them 
dwelt  on  the  necessity  of  reduction  of  taxation,  and 
declared  that  the  only  remedy  was  Parliamentary 
reform. 

The  stream  of  public  opinion  and  the  activity  of  the 
Platform  is  well  described  in  a  letter  from  Croker  to 
Peel,  dated  1st  February  1822,  which  is  also  note- 
worthy as  testifying  to  the  status  of  the  Platform : 
"  The  cause  of  reform,  it  cannot  be  doubted,  has 
made  great  progress ;  public  opinion  is  created  by  the 
Press  or  by  public  meetings,  and  by  the  numbers  and 
weight  of  the  advocates  of  a  cause.  Now,  almost  the 
whole  Press  and  all  public  meetings  are  loud  for  reform, 
and  I  believe  I  may  say  with  truth  that  such  is  the 
apathy,  or  the  timidity,  on  our  side  of  the  question 


CHAP,  xiii     PROGRESS  OF  THE  CAUSE  OF  REFORM  569 

that,  except  an  annual  speech  of  Mr.  Canning  at  a 
Liverpool  dinner,  and  the  occasional  article  of  some 
obscure  man  of  letters  in  the  Quarterly  Review,  nothing 
is  spoken  or  written  to  oppose  the  torrent  of  the 
reformers.  To  this  must  be  added  the  accession  of 
names  which  the  reformers  have  acquired  in  some  of 
the  great  Whig  lords.  Lord  Fitzwilliam  and  Lord 
Darlington,  two  of  the  largest  borough  owners  in  Eng- 
land, have  joined  them."1  And  he  adds  further  on: 
"In  the  humbler  circle  in  which  I  move,  at  tables, 
where  ten  years  ago  you  would  have  no  more  heard 
reform  advocated  than  treason,  you  will  now  find  half 
the  company  reformers — moderate  reformers,  indeed, 
individually,  but  radical  in  the  lump." 

Encouraged  by  the  number  of  Petitions  presented  to 
Parliament,  Lord  J.  Eussell,  on  the  25th  April  1822, 
moved  "  That  the  present  state  of  the  representation  of 
the  people  in  Parliament  requires  the  most  serious  con- 
sideration of  this  House. 

"The  question  has  been  so  often  met  and  turned 
aside  by  fears  of  Jacobinism  in  foreign  nations,  or  of 
tumults  at  home,  that  I  feel  it  a  great  advantage  to 
be  able  to  say  that  our  present  state  of  external  peace 
and  internal  tranquillity  affords  opportunity  for  ample 
and  undisturbed  discussion. 

"  There  is  another  circumstance  which  ought  to 
weigh  in  favour  of  the  motion  I  make — the  number  of 
Petitions  for  reform  of  Parliament  which  have  been 
pouring  into  this  House  since  the  beginning  of  the 
session.  Petitions  have  this  year  been  presented  from 
the  counties  of  Middlesex,  Devon,  Norfolk,  Suffolk, 
Bedford,  Cambridge,  Surrey,  Cornwall,  and  Hunting- 
don ;  also  in  great  numbers  from  separate  towns ;  and 

1  The  Croker  Papers,  vol.  ii.  p.  52. 


570        THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

"  the  Petitions  which  have  been  presented  for  the  re- 
lease of  Mr.  Hunt  nearly  all  contain  a  petition  for 
reform." l 

He  drew  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  petitioners 
did  not  ask  for  any  one  plan  of  reformation.  "  A  few 
years  ago  all  the  Petitions  prayed  for  universal  suf- 
frage, but  at  a  meeting,  in  the  present  year,  of  the 
county  of  Middlesex — a  meeting  which  might  be  sup- 
posed to  bring  together  all  classes  of  reformers — when 
a  venerable  advocate  of  the  cause  of  reform  proposed  a 
petition  for  universal  suffrage,  he  could  find  no  one  to 
second  him.  That  single  circumstance  shows  the  dis- 
position of  the  people  to  ask  for  reform  as  a  cure  for 
abuses  existing,  and  not  as  a  fanciful,  untried  measure, 
of  which,  in  their  own  minds,  they  have  some  vague 
conception."  But  Parliament  by  269  votes  to  164 
declined  to  accept  Lord  J.  Russell's  motion. 

But  if  the  Platform  was  thriving  to  a  certain 
extent,  despite  the  attempt  of  the  Government  to 
destroy  it,  other  forces  were  making  against  it. 
Jeffrey,  in  a  letter  dated  27th  January  1822,  sums  up 
the  position  in  these  words  :2  "  The  King  has  a  rooted 
horror  at  all  liberal  opinions.  .  .  .  The  body  of  the 
people  are  so  poor,  and  their  prospects  so  dismal,  that 
it  is  quite  easy  to  stir  them  up  to  any  insane  project 
of  reform;  and  the  dread  of  this  makes  timid  people 
rally  round  those  who  are  for  keeping  order  by  force, 
and  neutralises  the  sober  influence  of  the  Whigs. 

"  Our  only  chance  is  in  the  extremity  of  our  financial 
embarrassments,  which  will  force  such  retrenchments  on 
the  Ministry  as  at  once  to  weaken  their  powers  of  corrup- 

1  Parliamentary   Debates,    vol.    vii.  2  See  Life  of  Jeffrey,  by  Lord  Cock- 

p.  52.  burn,  vol.  ii.  p.  197. 


CHAP,  xin     GOVERNMENT  COMPULSION  ON  MEMBERS     571 

tion,  and  to  lend  credit  to  those  whose  lessons  they  have 
so  long  contemned,  and  must  now  stoop  to  follow." 

The  Platform  cry  for  retrenchment  resulted  early  in 
March  in  the  curtailment  of  the  salary  of  one  Lord  of 
the  Admiralty,  and  in  May,  in  an  address  to  the  Crown' 
for  the  discontinuance  of  one  of  the  Postmaster-Generals 
— but  then  a  Government  pull  came.  Lord  Eldon  thus 
describes  it  in  a  letter  to  Lady  Bankes  (16th  May  1822)  : 
"  To  check  the  efforts  making  to  pull  down  all  the 
establishments  of  the  Crown,  Ministers  declared  in  the 
House  of  Commons  last  night,  in  a  debate  upon  the 
Civil  List,  their  intention  to  resign  if  those  efforts 
should  succeed  again.  This  seems  to  have  brought  the 
country  gentlemen  to  their  senses,  and  the  Government 
succeeded  by  a  majority  of  127."  x 

In  the  next  month  Brougham  raised  a  debate  on 
the  growth  of  the  influence  of  the  Crown.  He  described 
the  increased  patronage  which  the  Crown  now  had, 
owing  to  the  increased  number  of  military  and  naval 
officers,  and  800  colonial  appointments ;  the  increased 
revenue  staff  at  home,  the  enormous  increase  of  the 
amount  of  taxation ;  and  he  maintained  that  the 
influence  of  the  Crown  had  increased  by  its  being  better 
arrayed  and  organised  than  it  was ;  but  his  motion  was 
set  aside  by  216  votes  to  101,  or  a  majority  of  115.2 

A  really  graphic  description  of  one  county  meeting 
will  convey  so  much  more  realisable  an  idea  of  what 
county  meetings  at  this  period  really  were  that  I  give 
the  following  account  of  one  of  them  from  the  pen  of 
Baron  A.  de  Stael  Holstein  who  visited  England  at 
this  time.  He  prefaced  it  with  some  comments  on 
county  meetings  generally.3 

1  Life  of  Lord  Eldon,  vol.  ii.  p.  451.  3  See  his  Letters  on  England  (pub- 

-  Hansard,  vol.  vii.  p.  1265.  lished  1825)— Letter  XI. 


572         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"  Of  all  the  public  assemblages  of  persons  in  Eng- 
land, perhaps  none  are  so  striking  to  a  stranger  as 
county  meetings.  These  are  usually  held  in  the  open 
air,  in  a  marketplace,  a  court  before  a  town  hall,  or 
some  frequented  public  walk,  for  the  number  of  persons 
collected  by  interest  or  curiosity  is  too  great  for  any 
public  room  to  contain  them.  And,  in  fact,  though  the 
freeholders  of  the  county  are  the  only  persons  who  have 
a  right  to  vote  at  them,  almost  any  one  that  chooses  to 
be  present  is  admitted  without  distinction.  The  busi- 
ness is  not  to  decide  as  legislators  or  judges  on  positive 
rights  or  interests,  but  to  consult  or  to  guide  the  opinions 
of  the  many." 

He  then  gave  a  description  of  the  meeting  for  the 
county  Kent,  which  was  held  on  the  llth  June  1822 
in  the  Town  Hall  of  Maidstone :  "  I  set  oif  in  the 
morning  with  some  great  landholders  of  the  county — 
Whigs.  .  .  . 

"  We  alighted  at  an  inn,  where  we  found  some  of 
the  persons  of  greatest  consequence  in  the  vicinity 
already  met  in  committee.  A  draft  of  a  Petition  had 
been  prepared  the  day  before,  in  which  the  grievances  of 
the  agricultural  class  were  enumerated  ;  next  a  reduction 
of  taxes  was  called  for,  as  well  as  measures  to  raise  the 
price  of  corn ;  and  lastly,  a  reform  of  Parliament  was 
demanded  as  the  only  remedy  of  all  the  evils  of  the 
State.  This  project  seemed  calculated  to  satisfy  the 
wishes  of  the  most  democratic.  It  was  then  discussed, 
slight  amendments  made  in  it,  and  preparations  to  sub- 
mit it  to  the  general  meeting — everything  inducing  a 
presumption  that  it  would  be  adopted  there  without 
opposition. 

"  The  hour  of  meeting  arrived,  and  we  went  down  to 
the  marketplace.  It  was  market  day.  Some  thousands 


CHAP,  xin  A  COUNTY  MEETING  573 

of  people  were  already  assembled ;  all  the  windows  of 
the  adjacent  houses  were  filled  with  spectators  ;  with  the 
noise  of  the  crowd  were  mingled  the  lowing  of  oxen  and 
the  bleating  of  sheep,  and  all  the  confused  bustle  of 
buying  and  selling.  The  impatient  multitude  thronged 
round  some  carts  placed  for  the  convenience  of  speakers, 
and  across  one  of  which  were  the  two  deal  boards, 
serving  as  the  chair  and  desk  of  the  Sheriff  who  pre- 
sided at  the  meeting.  Some  got  up  on  the  wheels, 
others  mounted  on  ladders,  that  they  might  be  certain 
of  not  losing  a  word  of  what  was  said,  so  extremely 
sensible  are  the  lower  classes  of  the  people  in  England 
of  the  pleasures  of  political  eloquence.  .  .  .  After  the 
Sheriff  had  announced  the  purpose  of  the  meeting,  a 
member  of  Parliament,  the  representative  of  the  Whigs 
of  the  county,  made  a  speech,  in  which  he  explained 
the  motives  of  the  intended  petition.  The  conduct  of 
the  Ministry,  and  the  increase  of  the  taxes,  owing  to 
ruinous  and  impolitic  wars,  were  naturally  the  subjects 
of  his  discourse,  more  than  once  interrupted  by  the 
thunder  of  applause  from  10,000  auditors. 

"  The  assembly  appeared  to  be  unanimous  ;  however, 
Sir  E.  Knatohbull,  the  ministerial  member,  though 
almost  alone,  thought  it  incumbent  on  him  not  to  let 
the  speech  of  his  colleague  pass  unanswered,  and  boldly 
undertook  to  defend  the  opinions  of  the  Ministry,  who 
were  there  at  least  in  a  great  minority.  His  speech  was 
listened  to  without  favour,  but  with  impartiality.  .  .  . 

"  The  Petition  experienced  no  opposition,  and  the 
Sheriff  was  about  to  put  it  to  the  vote,  when  a  voice 
was  heard  from  the  midst  of  the  cart  most  thronged  by 
the  mob,  claiming  the  right  of  moving  an  amendment. 
Every  eye  was  directed  to  that  quarter,  where  a  man, 
with  gray  hairs,  but  stout  made,  and  with  a  bold 


574         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

"  countenance,  made  way  through  his  friends,  and 
advanced  to  speak.  This  was  the  famous  Cobbett ;  he 
was  received  with  a  general  murmur  of  disapprobation. 
'  No  Cobbett,  no  Jacobins ! '  exclaimed  more  than  one 
voice.  However,  a  nobleman  in  opposition  claimed  leave 
for  him  to  speak.  '  Is  he  a  freeholder  of  the  county  ? ' 
was  asked  on  all  sides.  '  Yes,  I  am,'  answered  Cobbett. 
'  Then  you  have  a  right  to  be  heard,'  said  the  Sheriff ; 
'  and  it  is  my  duty  to  support  you  in  it.'  .  .  .  He  spoke, 
moving  an  amendment  in  favour  of  a  reduction  of  the 
national  debt ;  threatening  Whigs  —  the  great  lords  of 
the  county  —  for  retaining  their  rotten  boroughs,  and 
saying,  '  The  time  has  come  to  speak  to  you  in  harsher 
language,  and  you  shall  hear  it  from  my  mouth.  Submit 
without  longer  delay  to  the  sacrifice  of  your  boroughs, 
or  prepare  yourselves  for  the  sacrifice  of  your  mansions 
and  your  fortunes.'  .  .  .  He  was  succeeded  by  another 
orator,  who  entered  more  at  large  into  the  amendment, 
and  completed  the  conquest  of  the  meeting.  The  efforts 
of  the  Whigs  to  reject  it  were  without  avail,  and  it  was 
carried  by  a  great  majority. 

"  Here,  then,  we  have  a  victory  gained  by  the  leader 
of  the  Jacobin  party,  not  over  a  few  obscure  minis- 
terialists, but  over  the  Whigs — over  the  most  consider- 
able and  most  justly  respected  landholders  of  the 
county.  .  .  .  Would  you  not  suppose  the  country  to  be 
on  the  verge  of  a  revolution  ?  .  .  .  Not  so,  however. 
After  a  momentary  agitation  order  is  restored,  and  the 
people,  satisfied  with  having  enjoyed  their  rights,  retire 
more  attached  than  ever  to  the  institutions  by  which 
these  rights  are  secured.  ...  I  returned  to  London 
with  the  same  persons  whom  I  accompanied  in  the 
morning.  They  did  not  experience  fewer  testimonies  of 
respect  than  before ;  nothing  was  changed ;  there  was 


CHAP,  xin  COUNTY  MEETINGS  575 

not  the  least  apprehension  of  the  stability  of  rank  or 
property ;  and  10,000  men  voting  a  national  bankruptcy 
30  miles  from  the  capital  did  not  even  occasion  the 
slightest  variation  in  the  price  of  stocks." 

He  sums  up  his  views  on  county  meetings  thus  :  "It 
would  be  wrong  to  conclude  from  this  that  county 
meetings  are  empty  ceremonies — a  sort  of  saturnalia  for 
the  day  without  any  influence  on  the  morrow.  These 
meetings  have  a  real  influence  on  the  opinions  of  the 
many ;  they  enlighten  and  confirm  them  ;  they  keep  up, 
among  the  people  of  England,  a  sense  of  their  rights  and 
of  their  strength,  without  which  all  written  securities 
are  vain ;  and  a  statesman  must  be  destitute  of  judg- 
ment and  foresight  who  does  not  lend  an  attentive  ear 
to  the  wishes  expressed  in  meetings  of  this  kind." 

The  description  enables  us  to  realise  very  vividly 
the  nature,  character,  and  import  of  county  meetings  at 
this  time.  Gradually,  as  we  have  seen,  these  meetings, 
convened  mainly  on  the  subject  of  agricultural  distress, 
drifted  ever  more  and  more  toward  Parliamentary  reform 
— gradually  too,  during  these  years,  the  different  sections 
of  the  popular  party  subordinated  their  differences  and 
began  to  form  a  more  homogeneous  party. 

The  beginning  of  1823  saw  the  Platform  vigorously 
at  work.  So  early  as  the  3d  of  January  a  meeting  of 
the  county  Norfolk  was  held,  some  5000  to  6000  persons 
being  at>;  it  —  "a  most  numerous  and  respectable 
assemblage," — arid  the  High  Sheriff  in  the  chair.  A 
Mr.  Th^ftell  moved  a  series  of  resolutions,  in  which 
the  excessive  distress  of  the  agriculturists  was  enlarged 
upon.  Taxation  was  declared  to  be  its  chief  cause — an 
abolition  of  all  needless  places,  pensions,  and  sinecures, 
a  partial  reduction  of  the  national  debt,  and  the  repeal 
of  certain  taxes  were  called  for  as  remedies.  The  subject 


576         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

of  Parliamentary  reform,  however,  was  not  mentioned — 
designedly,  it  may  be  presumed.  The  proposal  was 
made  to  embody  the  purport  of  the  resolutions  in  a 
Petition  to  Parliament,  when  suddenly  and  unexpectedly 
Cobbett  appeared  on  the  scene,  just  as  he  had  done  at 
Maidstone,  and  proposed  a  rival  Petition.  It  was  rather 
a  startling  document.  The  House  was  to  be  besought 
to  pass  an  Act  for  causing  an  efficient  reform  in  the 
House  of  Commons  in  order  that  such  Parliament  might 
adopt  measures  to  effect  the  following  purposes  : l — An 
appropriation  of  a  part  of  the  public  property,  commonly 
called  church  property,  and  also  the  sale  of  Crown  lands  to 
the  liquidation  of  the  debt.  A  reduction  of  the  standing 
army — a  total  abolition  of  all  sinecures,  pensions,  grants, 
and  emoluments,  not  merited  by  public  services.  An 
equitable  adjustment  with  regard  to  the  public  debt, 
and  also  with  regard  to  all  debts  and  contracts  between 
man  and  man.  The  Petition  also  asked  that  the  House 
would  be  pleased  to  suspend  by  law,  for  one  year,  all 
distraints  for  rent,  all  process  for  tithes,  and  all  processes 
arising  out  of  mortgage,  bond,  annuity,  or  other  contract 
affecting  house  or  land,  to  repeal  the  whole  tax  on  malt, 
hops,  leather,  soap,  and  candles.  In  conclusion,  the 
Petition  assured  the  House  that  the  petitioners  "  venerate 
the  Constitution  of  their  fathers ;  that  they  sought  for 
no  change  in  the  form  of  the  Government ;  that  they 
fervently  hoped  this  Constitution  might  descend  to 
their  children  ;  but  that  they  were  fully  convinced  that 
unless  the  present  evils  were  speedily  arrested  aftd  effectu- 
ally cured,  a  convulsion  must  come,  in  whicfe4ihe  whole 
of  this  ancient  and  venerable  fabric  will  be-  crumbled 
into  dust." 

The  unexpected  intrusion  of  Cobbett  led  to  a  great 

1  Parliameiitary  Debates,  1823,  vol.  viii.  p.  1254. 


CHAP,  xin  COUNTY  MEETINGS  577 

clamour.  An  eye-witness  has  described  the  scene.  He 
said  that  when  he  entered  the  hall,  "  Mr.  Cobbett 
appeared  to  be  speaking  with  the  most  violent  gesticul- 
ations from  one  end  of  the  hustings ;  a  reverend 
gentleman  was  speaking  apparently  with  equal  energy 
from  the  other ;  and  the  under-sheriff  was  reading  from 
a  large  paper  in  the  middle ;  whilst,  from  the  un- 
intermitted  clamour  of  the  circle  that  surrounded  them, 
it  appeared  to  him  that  not  one  of  them  knew  that  the 
others  were  also  holding  forth." l 

Another  eye-witness  described  the  confusion  of  the 
meeting,  and  stated  that  though  he  stood  within  two 
yards  of  Mr.  Cobbett,  he  could  scarcely  collect  a  word 
that  he  uttered,  for  as  soon  as  he  came  forward,  great 
uproar  and  tumult  ensued.  To  obtain  attention 
Cobbett  cried  out,  "  Here's  immediate  relief  for  you — 
this  will  fill  your  bellies — this  will  prevent  your  beds 
from  being  taken  from  under  you."  The  eye-witness 
adds,  "  It  was,  however,  a  very  good-humoured  meeting  ; 
everybody  was  laughing." 

"The  most  numerous  and  respectable  assemblage" 
preferred  the  Petition  proposed  by  Cobbett  to  the  more 
moderate  one  proposed  by  Mr.  Thurtell,  and  it  was 
adopted,  and  in  due  time  was  presented  to  and  received 
by  the  House,  much  to  the  indignation  of  many 
people, — Mr.  M.  A.  Taylor  among  the  number, — who, 
though  he  declared  himself  to  be  a  reformer,  said  the 

O  ' 

Petition  was  "  a  mockery  and  farce,  containing  a  mass 
of  absurdities,  a  tissue  of  false  statements,  and  a  farrago 
of  inconclusive  reasoning.  It  went  to  a  direct  revolu- 
tion in  Church  and  State." 

Several  counter-petitions  reprobating  the  Petition 
were  got  up  by  the  party  which  was  defeated  at  the 

1  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  viii.  p.  1257. 


578         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

meeting,  and  were  presented  to  the  House  at  the  same 
time  as  it  was. 

Meetings  such  as  these  present  a  very  interesting 
phase  of  Platform  activity.  They  did  not,  however, 
all  eventuate  in  the  same  manner. 

On  the  17th  January  a  meeting  was  held  in  the 
Town  Hall  of  Hereford,  .about  5000  persons  being 
present.  The  Lord  Lieutenant  of  the  county  presided, 
and  he  was  accompanied  by  the  leading  gentry  of  the 
county,  and  the  hall  was  thronged  with  the  gentry  and 
farmers  of  the  county. 

Cobbett  here  again  proposed  a  Petition,  but  he  was 
outvoted,  and  his  Petition  was  rejected.  That,  however, 
which  was  proposed  by  a  Mr.  Charlton,  and  adopted, 
contained  a  sweeping  condemnation  of  the  Government, 
and  asked  for  several  financial  reforms,  some  of  an  ex- 
treme character. 

And  then  a  county  meeting  was  held  in  Somerset, 
Hunt,  now  released  from  prison,  being  at  it,  "ready," 
he  said,  "  notwithstanding  his  imprisonment,  to  speak 
his  mind  again.  He  would  endeavour  to  do  it  like  a 
gentleman,  but  still  he  would  speak  out  plainly."  This 
meeting  is  interesting  for  one  circumstance  which 
occurred  at  it.  Hunt  urged  the  meeting  not  to  wait 
for  another  county  meeting,  but  to  petition  for  reform 
now.1  The  High  Sheriff,  who  was  chairman,  interfered, 
and  declared  "  Once  for  all  that  he  would  not  entertain 
any  Petition  in  which  reform  was  called  for,  because 
that  topic  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  present  meeting"; 
and  he  further  declared  that  the  law  allowed  him  to 
decide. 

A  county  meeting  took  place  in  Yorkshire,  expressly 
in  reference  to  Parliamentary  reform,  at  which  the  High 

1  The  Examiner,  p.  67,  1823. 


CHAP,  xin  THE  PLATFORM  IN  SCOTLAND  579 

Sheriff  was  chairman,  and  at  which  Lord  Milton,  M.P., 
avowed  his  conversion  to  reform.1  During  the  months 
of  February  and  March  1823  numerous  other  county 
meetings  were  held.  Hunt  and  Cobbett  spoke  at  many 
of  them.  At  many  of  the  meetings  at  this  period 
speeches  in  direct  opposition  to  the  object  of  the  meet- 
ing were  allowed  by  the  meeting,  and  quietly  listened 
to ;  in  fact,  a  greater  degree  of  toleration  towards  hostile 
speeches  and  opinions  appears  to  have  prevailed  then 
than  there  does  now,  and  there  was  more  discussion  at 
meetings  than  at  present  prevails. 

That  the  revival  of  the  Platform  on  this  occasion  was 
greater  than  on  previous  occasions  is  shown  by  the  fact 
that  it  was  no  longer  confined  to  England.  Scotland, 
so  long  dead  and  inert,  began  to  show  signs  of  moving. 

"  It  was  thought,"  writes  Lord  Cockburn,  "  that  the 
time  had  now  arrived  when  a  decided  move  might  be 
made  for  a  reform  of  our  Parliamentary  representa- 
tion." .  .  . 

"  On  the  8th  March  1823  the  Pantheon  was  filled. 
Mr.  Craig,  a  merchant,  presided,  and  a  Petition  was 
adopted.  In  the  course  of  a  few  days  about  7000  sub- 
scribed to  it." : 

Petitions  for  reform  received,  however,  scant  con- 
sideration from  Parliament.  In  February  Lord  John 
Kussell's  modest  request  for  a  plain  arithmetical  state- 
ment of  the  number  of  voters  who  returned  members 
for  the  several  cities  and  boroughs  and  the  right  of 
voting  was  refused.  The  Government  resisted  the 
motion  which  was  negatived  by  128  to  90.  In  April 
he  moved  "  That  the  present  state  of  the  representation 
requires  the  most  serious  consideration  of  this  House  ;  " 
but  the  House  did  not  seem  to  think  so  by  280  votes  to 

1  The  Examiner,  p.  71,  1823.  2  Cockburn's  Memorials,  pp.  403,  404. 


58o         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

169.1  And  in  June  Lord  A.  Hamilton  brought  forward 
his  motion  relative  to  the  state  of  the  Scotch  county 
representation,  where  reform  was  badly  required,  as  "  in 
no  county  in  Scotland  did  the  number  of  voters  exceed 
240,  and  in  one  it  was  as  low  as  9."  But  the  House 
declared  by  152  votes  against  117  that  th$y  would  not 
reform  this  either. 

The  Annual  Register  of  1823,  commenting  on  the 
meetings  held  during  the  year,  said :  "  The  language 
held  at  most  of  these  meetings  was  violent  in  the 
extreme ;  but  it  was  regarded  by  sober-minded  men  as 
the  effusion  of  party  spirit,  and  as  being  neither  in 
unison  with  the  sentiments  nor  suitable  to  the  actual 
circumstances  of  the  nation.  The  people  saw  and  felt 
that  many  classes  in  the  community  were  in  a  thriving 
state,  and  that  the  embarrassments  even  of  the  agricul- 
turists were  becoming  every  day  less.  A  general  opinion 
prevailed  that,  on  subjects  of  internal  legislation,  the 
Ministry  had  shown  more  just  and  more  enlarged  views 
than  their  opponents." 2 

But  what  was  in  reality  helping  to  quiet  the  country 
was  the  fact  that  the  Government  was  showing  a 
tendency  to  fall  in  to  some  extent  with  the  Liberal 
opinions  of  the  time.  Their  foreign  policy  met  with 
general  approval,  and  certain  changes  took  place  in  some 
important  offices  which  "  were  calculated  to  strengthen 
the  Ministry  in  the  public  opinion,"  and  were  especially 
acceptable  to  the  commercial  part  of  the  community. 

The  Government,  moreover,  had  this  in  their  favour, 
that  the  condition  of  the  people  generally  was  improv- 
ing. "The  country,  in  the  beginning  and  throughout 
the  whole  of  the  year,  exhibited  the  most  unequivocal 
marks  of  a  steady  and  progressive  prosperity." 3 

1  Hansard,  vol.  viii.  p.  1260.  *  Ibid.,  p.  1. 

a  Annual  Register,  p.  3,  1823. 


CHAP,  xin     A  FOREIGN  POLICY  PLATFORM  SPEECH  581 

During  the  autumn  Canning  once  more  showed  his 
appreciation  of  the  utility  of  the  Platform  and  his  love 
for  it.  He  was  visiting  some  of  the  commercial  and 
manufacturing  districts.  In  October  he  was  in  Devon- 
shire, and  at  Plymouth  he  was  presented  with  the 
freedom  of  the  city.1  In  reply  he  delivered  a  speech 
which,  in  many  ways,  was  remarkable,  but  which  was 
most  of  all  so  in  being  absolutely  the  first  instance  of 
the  public  declaration  by  a  Minister  of  State  of  the 
foreign  policy  of  the  country  by  other  means  than  a 
speech  in  Parliament,  or  the  still  more  orthodox  and 
diplomatic  practice  of  an  official  despatch.  The  speech 
was  a  striking  testimony  to  the  value  which  had  been 
come  to  be  set  on  the  Platform  by  the  greatest  states- 
man of  his  time.  Having  returned  his  thanks  for  the 
honour  which  had  been  done  him,  he  said :  "  The  end 
which  I  confess  I  have  always  had  in  view,  and  which 
appears  to  me  the  legitimate  object  of  pursuit  to  a 
British  statesman,  I  can  describe  in  one  word.  ...  In 
the  conduct  of  political  affairs,  the  grand  object  of  my 
contemplation  is  the  interest  of  England.  Not,  gentle- 
men, that  the  interest  of  England  is  an  interest  which 
stands  isolated  and  alone.  The  situation  which  she 
holds  forbids  an  exclusive  selfishness ;  her  prosperity 
must  contribute  to  the  prosperity  of  other  nations ;  and 
her  stability  to  the  safety  of  the  world.  But  intimately 
connected  as  we  are  with  the  system  of  Europe,  it  does 
not  follow  that  we  are  therefore  called  upon  to  mix  our- 
selves on  every  occasion  with  a  restless  and  meddling 
activity  in  the  concerns  of  the  nations  which  surround 
us.  It  is  upon  a  just  balance  of  conflicting  duties, 
and  of  rival  but  sometimes  incompatible  advantages, 
that  a  Government  must  judge  when  to  put  forth 

1  See  The  Times,  3d  November  1823. 


582         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

its  strength,  and  when  to  husband  it  for  occasions  yet 
to  come. 

"  Our  ultimate  object  must  be  the  peace  of  the 
world.  That  object  may  sometimes  be  best  attained  by 
prompt  exertions — sometimes  by  abstinence  from  the 
interposition  in  contests  which  we  cannot  prevent.  It 
is  upon  these  principles  that  it  did  not  appear  to  the 
Government  of  this  country  to  be  necessary  that  Great 
Britain  should  mingle  in  the  recent  contest  between 
France  and  Spain. 

"  But  while  we  thus  control  even  our  feelings  by  our 
duty,  let  it  not  be  said  that  we  cultivate  peace  either 
because  we  fear,  or  because  we  are  unprepared  for  war. 
.  .  .  The  resources  created  by  peace  are  means  of  war. 
In  cherishing  those  resources,  we  but  accumulate  those 
means.  Our  present  repose  is  no  more  a  proof  of  in- 
ability to  act  than  the  state  of  inertness  and  inactivity 
in  which  I  have  seen  those  mighty  masses  that  float  in 
the  waters  above  your  town,  is  a  proof  they  are  devoid 
of  strength,  and  incapable  of  being  fitted  for  action. 

"  You  well  know  how  soon  one  of  those  stupendous 
masses,  now  reposing  on  their  shadows  in  perfect  still- 
ness— how  soon,  upon  any  call  of  patriotism,  or  of  neces- 
sity, it  would  assume  the  likeness  of  an  animated  thing, 
instinct  with  life  and  motion — how  soon  it  would 
ruffle,  as  it  were,  its  swelling  plumage — how  quickly  it 
would  put  forth  all  its  beauty  and  its  bravery,  collect 
its  scattered  elements  of  strength,  and  awaken  its  dor- 
mant thunder. 

"  Such  as  is  one  of  those  magnificent  machines  when 
springing  from  inaction  into  a  display  of  its  might — 
such  is  England  herself,  while  apparently  passive  and 
motionless  she  silently  concentrates  the  power  to  be  put 
forth  on  an  adequate  occasion.  But  God  forbid  that 


CHAP,  xin  POLITICAL  BANQUETS  583 

that  occasion  should  arise !  After  a  war  sustained  for 
nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century — sometimes  single-handed, 
and  with  all  Europe  arranged  at  times  against  her  or  at 
her  side — England  needs  a  period  of  tranquillity,  and 
may  enjoy  it  without  fear  of  misconstruction.  Long 
may  we  be  enabled  to  improve  the  blessings  of  our 
present  situation,  to  cultivate  the  arts  of  peace,  to  give 
to  commerce,  now  reviving,  greater  extension,  and  new 
spheres  of  employment,  and  to  confirm  the  prosperity 
now  generally  diffused  throughout  this  island." 

The  year  1824  appears  to  have  been  still  quieter  so 
far  as  the  action  of  the  Platform  was  concerned ;  indeed, 
the  particular  phase  of  the  Platform  which  appears  to 
have  been  most  in  vogue  at  this  time  was  a  new  one — 
that  of  political  banquets — a  useful  form  of  public  meet- 
ing and  public  speaking  which  the  Seditious  Meetings 
Prevention  Act  of  1819  had  not  thought  of  provid- 
ing against  —  indeed,  could  scarcely  have  provided 
against.  Thus,  in  1823,  a  public  dinner  was  given  to 
that  veteran  Liberal — Lord  Fitzwilliam  ;  and  the  Whig 
Club  of  Cheshire  had  their  annual  dinner  ;  and  at  Glas- 
gow a  dinner  was  given  to  Brougham  and  Denman,  and 
there  was  a  lot  of  useful  speechifying.  Even  Ministers 
were  sucked  into  the  vortex,  as  Canning  and  Huskisson 
dined  with  the  Sheriffs  in  London,  and  made  speeches 
of  some  political  import  and  consequence. 

Any  excuse  almost  served  for  a  political  banquet, 
and  every  banquet  was  made  the  occasion  for  inspirit- 
ing political  speeches,  which  were  duly  reported  in  the 
newspapers,  and  afforded  proof  that  extra-Parliamentary 
utterances  might  be  quite  as  interesting  as  anything 
said  in  Parliament. 

Scotland  followed  English  example  in  this  respect, 
and  from  1821  onwards  a  series  of  these  entertainments 


584         THE  PLATFORM  :    ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS     PART  n 

took  place  in  Scotland.  "They  were,"  writes  Lord 
Cockburn,1  "  by  far  the  most  effective  of  all  the  public 
movements  in  Scotland  on  the  popular  side  at  that 
time.  .  .  .  They  gathered  together  the  aristocracy  in 
station  and  in  character  of  the  Scotch  Whig  party ;  but 
derived  still  greater  weight  from  the  open  accession  of 
citizens,  who  for  many  years  had  been  taught  to  shrink 
from  political  interference  on  this  side,  as.  hurtful  to 
their  business." 

Otherwise,  there  is  little  to  chronicle  about  the  Plat- 
form :  the  country  had  sunk  into  temporary  quiescence. 

It  was  in  this  state  of  quiescence  that  the  Seditious 
Meetings  Prevention  Act  expired.  The  inference  might 
possibly  be  drawn  from  this  fact  that  the  policy  of  the 
Government  in  suppressing  the  Platform  was  sealed  with 
the  proof  of  success.  But  so  far  from  the  Government 
having  triumphed,  the  reverse  was  the  truth ;  the  real 
triumph  rested  with  the  Platform.  The  Government 
had  silenced  the  Platform  because  they  denied  the 
right  of  the  people  to  meet  when  they  liked,  where  they 
liked,  and  if  they  liked.  The  Government  repudiated 
the  doctrine  that  any  person  had  the  right  to  call  a 
meeting,  or  that  people  had  the  right  to  attend  a 
meeting  at  a  distance  from  their  own  homes.  The 
Government  instituted  a  censorship  over  the  Platform 
by  insisting  that  nothing  should  be  said  from  it  which 
did  not  meet  with  the  approval  of  a  magistrate.  The 
Government  objected  to  what  a  contemporary  writer2 
called  "  The  modern  method  of  calling  together  large 
deliberative  crowds,  as  a  sort  of  outer  Parliaments, 
having  no  other  object  than  publicly  to  take  into  con- 
sideration affairs  of  State,  and  to  record  the  result  of 

1  Life    of   Lord    Jeffrey,    by    Lord          2  Quarterly  Review,  vol.  xxii.  p.  535, 
Cockburn,  vol.  i.  p.  267.  March  1820. 


CHAP,  xin  THE  PLATFORM  TRIUMPHANT  585 

their  deliberation  in  propositions  or  resolutions,  ad- 
dressed to  none  of  the  constituted  authorities,  but 
published  purely  as  authorised  expressions  of  popular 
opinion." 

But  as  the  Government  legislation  was  only  tem- 
porary, its  expiration  formally  established  and  sanctioned, 
once  and  for  ever,  each  and  every  one  of  these  particular 
claims  as  recognised  rights  and  principles.  They  had 
existed  in  a  more  or  less  uncertain  shadowy  way  before  ; 
the  legislation  against  them  practically  defined  them, 
and  gave  each  a  separate  importance  ;  the  expiration  of 
that  legislation  left  them  as  clear,  no-longer-contested 
rights.  Henceforth,  any  person,  no  matter  how  humble 
his  position,  could  summon  or  convene  as  many  meet- 
ings as  he  liked,  provided,  of  course,  they  were  not  for 
an  illegal  purpose — the  only  check  being  the  natural 
discouragement  of  nobody  coming  to  them,  and  certain 
expenses  connected  with  summoning  them.  Henceforth, 
any  person  could,  without  liability  to  punishment, 
attend  any  legal  meeting  he  chose,  whether  it  was  at 
his  own  door  or  at  the  extreme  end  of  the  country. 
Henceforth,  people  could  meet  in  any  numbers  they 
liked,  provided  their  meeting  did  not  excite  alarm 
among  his  Majesty's  subjects.  Henceforth,  any  number 
of  meetings  migjit  be  held  on  the  same  day.  And  last, 
but  most  important  of  all,  henceforth,  any  one  could  say 
what  he  liked  at  any  meeting  without  liability  to 
interruption  by  a  magistrate,  subject  only  to  the  re- 
straint imposed  by  the  risk  of  incurring  a  prosecution 
for  libel,  sedition,  or  certain  other  offences,  if  his  language 
was  so  extreme  as  to  bring  him  within  the  scope  of  the 
laws  against  those  offences. 

And  here,  too,  it  must  be  remarked  that  the  increas- 
ing use  of  the  Platform  had  imperceptibly  secured  for  it 


586         THE  PLATFORM  :   ITS  RISE  AND  PROGRESS    PART  n 

a  greater  latitude  of  expression — a  greater  scope  of 
criticism — greater  freedom  of  discussion.  The  narrow 
limitations  on  freedom  of  speech,  which,  in  its  earlier 
days,  the  Government  and  the  judicial  bench  had  sought 
to  impose  on  it,  had  gradually  been  broken  down ;  its 
progress  in  this  respect  was  contemporaneous  with  the 
growing  liberty  of  the  Press,  and  gradually  the  fact  was 
driving  itself  home  into  the  minds  of  the  authorities  that 
bondjide,  non-malicious  criticism  of  public  personages, 
institutions,  and  measures,  must  be  submitted  to.  And 
so,  when  the  severe  restrictions  on  public  meeting  and 
public  speaking  came  to  an  end  with  the  expiration 
of  the  Seditious  Meetings  Prevention  Act  in  1825, 
the  Platform  was  in  a  stronger  position  than  ever 
it  had  been  before.  In  fact,  when  once  that  Act — 
the  principal  of  that  celebrated  code,  "  The  Six  Acts  " 
— expired,  the  legal  position  of  the  Platform  was  clearly 
established  and  made  good;  the  great,  the  long-con- 
tested struggle  for  free  meeting  and  free  speech  was 
over ;  and  victory  rested  with  the  people. 

Thenceforward,  for  weal  or  woe,  the  Platform  was  to 
be  free  to  continue  its  work,  subject  only  to  certain 
limited  restrictions  imposed  on  it  by  the  ordinary  law ; 
thenceforward  this  tremendous  engine  of  popular  power 
was  to  be  vested  in  the  hands  of  the  people,  therewith— 
under  Providence — to  shape  their  own  destinies,  and  the 
destinies  of  their  country  through  future  time. 


END  OF  VOL.  I 


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